One Wish Left

CHAPTER 31: APART

This was only the third time Jesse had ever done the day-long flight between the two places he considered home, but this trip already seemed eons longer than the first two had been. He finally gave up trying to distract himself with music, so he pulled out his earbuds and flicked off his overhead light just as the flight attendant reached his row.

"Anything to drink?"

"Coffee, please. Black."

As she poured the steaming liquid into a cup, it occurred to him that he should probably try to get at least some sleep, especially considering he was now going on 36 hours sans shut-eye, but he knew it was a lost cause. Why not go straight to hell and enjoy some coffee along the way?

As soon as he'd first landed back in Melbourne, he'd switched his cellphone off of airplane mode and found multiple messages from Sam. Jesse had immediately called his friend back while finding his way to baggage claim. When he heard the news about Kieran being taken to the E.R., he didn't even have to hear what it was for or how serious it was. He just grabbed his luggage and moved as quickly as possible to find a ticket counter to buy his way back to Chicago.

His mother would be pissed, but she'd get over it.

And his granddad? Well, he could rot in his grave.

He'd had to wait three very long hours in the airport for the next flight out, during which time he'd called all of his friends and begged them to be there in his stead. He'd called Donna and even Chad, just to make sure Laura had everyone there she might need. As a result, he'd spent the majority of his wait on the phone pacing the airport terminal, which helped a bit. At least he was doing something to help, though it felt woefully insufficient.

But after Sam had called with more information about Kieran, saying that he had internal bleeding from an unknown traumatic injury, Jesse was in agony. There was nothing more he could do but wait with the knowledge that his dearest cousin was in serious condition.

For a few moments, Jesse had allowed his mind to flee to a very dark place. I'm bloody cursed, he'd thought. He'd lost so many close and important people in his life. There had to be something wrong with him.

Maybe God was punishing him.

What had he done to deserve this?

Then he thought about Laura, suffering through this unfathomable experience as a mother, and he rebuked himself until his self-pity was sufficiently exorcised.

He wasn't the only human who suffered.

Everyone suffers, and life is short.

He pondered this again as the attendant handed him his cup. "Here you go, love," she winked.

"Thanks," he returned with a closed-lip smile.

What matters is love, someone said.

"What?" Jesse asked.

The flight attendant stopped pushing her cart. "Hmm? I didn't say anything, sweetheart. Do you need something?"

That was strange. He could have sworn....

"No, thank you," he said, turning to face his window. He pulled up the shade. The night was indistinguishable from the black of the ocean somewhere below.

"What matters is love," he whispered, praying that the love in his heart would not fall into that dark abyss, but would be absorbed by the innumerable stars above to shine down on his adored ones. His beloved ones.

His beans.

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Even though The Deck was a decades-old pub in Geelong, Jesse had actually never been. He hardly went out at all; in fact, he rarely spent money on anything that wasn't absolutely necessary.