Surviving the Dreams

Chapter 19 - Mr. Wade

Twenty-four hours after being knocked out by the falling tree during the storm, Susan was still unconscious. The resort’s medics had done their best to stabilize her, but her injuries were more serious than they could manage and at their recommendation, she was on board a small emergency rescue plane, bound for the nearest hospital. Greg was by her side. Indeed, he’d refused to leave her from the moment she’d become injured, staying with her as her condition was assessed and it was determined she needed more extensive medical care than the resort had available. While the medics called for a plane, Greg went to gather a few of their things, hurrying back so that he was there when the ambulance arrived. The medics didn’t try to stop him as he climbed aboard, which was how he found himself bound for the Capital City. As it turned out that was not only the place with the US Embassy, it was also the location of the nearest hospital, some four hundred miles away.

The plane landed, and a new set of emergency workers took over, taking Susan by ambulance to the hospital, though this time Greg was forced to follow by cab. It didn’t take him that long to get there, but the doctors had already taken Susan to emergency surgery by the time he arrived.

“Are you with the American woman who just arrived?” the nurse asked.

“Yes. I’m her friend. We’ve been traveling together. I’m Greg Gaffney.”

The nurse looked at him blankly as she handed him a clip board and a stack of forms. “I see. Please fill these out and return them to the window down the hall. We will need to see proper identification of course,” she told him.

“What kind of identification?” Greg asked.

“Your passports,” the nurse told him.

“I’m sorry, our passports were lost.”

“You will have to apply for a replacement. The American Embassy should be able to provide you with temporary identification until then,” the nurse assured him.

“We have tried,” Greg assured her. “We did send in for replacements, but I’m afraid the Embassy hasn’t been much help. We haven’t gotten anything from them yet.”

“Then perhaps you should go in person,” the nurse suggested. “There is an officer from the Ambassador’s office in the business office here. Perhaps he can help you set up an appointment.”

Greg thanked her and filled out the forms as best he could, surprised as he did how little of Susan’s vital information he actually knew. Then he thought of the voice he’d heard on the other end of the phone. Susan’s husband, or ex-husband, or whatever they were. He would certainly know. After seventeen years together, there probably wasn’t much Michael didn’t know about Susan, though as he paused to consider what he did know about her after living with her for three years, he knew that wasn’t entirely true. He knew about the things that were close to her heart, what she thought about, who she cared for, things like that. Unfortunately that didn’t help much when filling out forms asking for medical and personal history, and Greg realized he didn’t even know her birthdate for sure. They’d been ignoring birthdays during their travels, something which had never occurred to him before.

Greg sighed as he returned the papers to the desk, and asked for directions to the Ambassador’s representative’s office.

It took two hours of waiting, first standing, then sitting on a very uncomfortable bench as Greg waited to speak with the officer who was there. When it was finally his turn, he told the thin man how his companion had become injured and needed to be treated in the hospital, but how their passports had been lost by the airline.

“You should have kept them with you,” the man scolded. “Especially when traveling in this sort of weather.”

“Yes. We probably should have,” Greg agreed. “Can you help us?”