Standing By

Get Adam

(Austin)

Chance's and my eyes met over Tim's form, flailing desperately on the mattress, fists hammering down angrily on it.  I was literally at a loss.  I didn't know what to do.  The last couple of nights, he'd needed hugging and reassuring.  And some singing.  Tonight nothing was working.  For the longest time, we couldn't even to wake up or open his eyes as he thrashed around like a fish out of water.  He thrashed his way plum off the bed, rolled his way across the room to me, and spent a moment slapping at me.  I'd woken up in a start myself, never having expected a violent awakening, and accidentally jabbed him in the eye with my elbow.  Somehow, he even managed to sleep through that.  We'd tried talking to him, tapping him, patting him, even attempted a song but didn't bother picking a single tune, so Chance was singing one thing while I was singing something else entirely, the result of which just sounded weird, especially given that neither one of us could seem to carry a tune after being woken up in the middle of the night in a sheer panic.  I struggled to hit notes I could normally hit without a problem, and Chance couldn't stay in a single key, just jumping around all over the place.  Finally, Rachel had run to get us a cup of water.  Not knowing what she wanted us to do with the water—wasn't like Tim could drink it when he was like this—I started to raise it to my lips to sip on it myself, only to be instructed to pour it on poor Tim to wake him up.  I had made a face but sloshed a little into his face, which had garnered absolutely zero response, so Chance took it from me and did it again with a little more water.  All that did was just wet his hair and face and we just wound up with a wet friend that was still asleep and thrashing.  So we went back to hugging and patting on him before attempting his medicine.  Something had to be done, awake or not.  Chance had made a few faces as he tried to sneak a pill in Tim's hollering mouth only to watch it tumble out seconds later.  He'd tried it again after wiping the pill off on his T-shirt but that time, Tim extended his tongue and pushed it away before he could even get it in.  I put my mouth close to his left ear and was whispering to him, Chance whispering directly into his right, when Tim sat up with a start, shaking like a leaf and breathing in little gasps of air.  He looked around at us, eyes filling with tears, and immediately started struggling against us, pushing on us, then he started yelling at us to go away, to get off him.  He stumbled around for a minute shouting nonsense before he'd thrown himself on the bed, frantically screaming, for some reason, for Adam.

    Chance's expression mirrored my own confusion and concern.  He mouthed at me, "What the hell?"

    I just shrugged helplessly, feeling pretty distraught myself, not knowing what to do 'cuz nothing we tried had worked.  I let myself dissolve into frustrated tears.  "Why's he screaming for Adam?"

    Thinking he was beside himself for the Adam present in the room, Rachel looked up from John's shoulder.  "Adam, do something!"

    Chance just shook his head, looking as helpless as I felt.  "He calls me Chance, not Adam.  If he's hollering for Adam, he means Adam Rupp, not me."

    I gave my hair a tug, trying to figure out what I could do for Tim, to help him, to calm him.  "Should we, ah... go get Adam?"   

    Tim let out another gut-wrenching scream.  "Adammm!"  He stood up, nearly knocking Chance over, pushing past me and making me grab onto the dresser for balance.  He stumbled past John and Rachel, crying so hard I had no idea how he could see where he was going.  Where was he going anyway?  "Adam!  I'm sorry!" he shouted into the air towards the hallway.  "Chris, I am so sorry!"

    "What's he sorry about?" I asked thickly.

    Chance shrugged.  "Tim?  What—what're you talking about?" he asked, but Tim was already out the door, hellbent to get... somewhere.