We stretched out on the bed afterward, to let our food settle. Anna played with a piece of my hair and put her head on my shoulder, tangling her legs with mine.

“I’ve never been so content in my life,” she said.

I muted the T.V. We had been watching coverage of the tsunami while we ate, amazed at the amount of devastation. Indonesia seemed to have been hit the hardest and the death toll had already reached the tens of thousands.

“I feel terrible saying this because so many people have died, but if it hadn’t been for the tsunami, we’d still be on that island,” Anna said. “I don’t know how much longer we would have lasted.”

“I don’t either.” I stretched my fingers toward the nightstand and turned the clock radio on, fiddling with the dial until I found an American music station. Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” was playing, and I smiled.

Anna sighed. “I love this song.”

She snuggled closer, and I held her tight.

“Has it hit you yet, T.J.? That we’re safe and we’re going to see our families again?”

“It’s starting to.”

“What time is it?” she asked.

I turned my head toward the clock. “It’s a little past two.”

“It’s one in the morning in Chicago. I don’t care. I’m going to try Sarah again. There’s no way she or my parents are sleeping anyway.”

Anna sat up and reached for the phone, pulling the cord across my body. “I’ll try her home number first.” She dialed and waited. “It’s busy,” she said. “Maybe she’ll answer her cell.” Anna dialed the number and waited. “It went straight to voice mail. I’ll leave her a message,” she said, but then she hung up without saying anything. “Her mailbox was full.”

“Try again in a little while. You’ll get through eventually.” She handed me the phone and I put it back on the nightstand. “Anna?”

She snuggled back into my arms. “Yeah?”

“What about John? Don’t you think Sarah probably called him?”

“I’m sure she did.”

“What do you think he’ll do when he finds out you’re alive?”

“He’ll be happy for my family, of course. Other than that, I don’t know. He’s probably living in the suburbs with a wife and a kid by now.” She paused for a minute and said, “I hope he gave my stuff to my parents.”

“Where will you live?”

“With my mom and dad. Wherever that is. They’ll want me to stay with them for a while. Then I’ll get my own place. I still can’t believe they sold their house, T.J. They always talked about buying something smaller someday, maybe a condominium, but I didn’t think they’d actually do it. I grew up in that house. It makes me sad to know they don’t own it anymore.”

I kissed her, and then I untied her robe and slipped it off her shoulders. We made love and fell asleep afterward. When I woke up it was 5:00 p.m. Anna slept soundly beside me. Staring at the ceiling, I thought about our conversation. I had asked her about John, but I hadn’t asked the only question I really wanted an answer to.

What about us?

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 41 – Anna

I opened my eyes and stretched. T.J. was leaning back against the headboard with the T.V. on low, eating a Slim Jim.

“That was a good nap.” I kissed him and swung my legs out of bed. “I have to pee. Do you know what I love the most about this bathroom?” I said, looking over my shoulder as I walked toward the door.

“Toilet paper?”

“Yep.”

When I got back from the bathroom, T.J. made me try a bite of his Slim Jim.

“Admit it. It’s not bad,” he said.

“It’s okay, but I’m a lot less picky than I used to be. Where did I leave those Sweet Tarts?”

I found them on the dresser. I wasn’t used to air conditioning so I wrapped my robe tighter around my body and snuggled back under the covers next to T.J.’s body. I was stiff and sore, more than I’d been when they first pulled me from the water, and I was thankful for such a soft bed.

At 10:00 p.m. I tried Sarah. It was 9:00 a.m. in Chicago, but I got a busy signal on her cell phone. “I still can’t get through,” I said. I called her home number but it just rang. “Her machine isn’t picking up either.”

“I’ll try my dad. Maybe he’s talked to her.” T.J. dialed his home number and waited. He shook his head. “Their line’s busy, too. I guess they’re both getting a lot of calls. We can try again in the morning.”

T.J. put the phone back and stroked my hair. “I don’t know how I’m going to get used to not sharing a bed with you every night.”

“Then let’s not get used to it,” I said. I propped myself up on my elbow and looked down at him. I wasn’t ready to let him go, no matter how selfish it made me feel.

He sat up. “Do you mean that?”

“Yes.” My heart pounded and my brain screamed that it was a bad idea, but I didn’t care. “We’ll be apart for a while. You need to be with your family and I do, too. But after that, if you want to come back, I’ll be waiting.”

He exhaled, a relieved expression on his face. He pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. “Of course I want that.”

“It won’t be easy, T.J. People won’t understand. There will be lots of questions.” A knot formed in my stomach just thinking about it. “You might want to mention you were almost nineteen before anything happened between us.”

“You think someone will ask?”

“I think everyone will ask.”

***

I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. We had fallen asleep with the T.V. on and when I crawled back into bed, I picked up the remote and scrolled through the channels, stopping to watch the news for a while.

I sat straight up when CNN announced breaking news and there on the screen, under the caption ‘TWO FROM CHICAGO LOST AT SEA, RESCUED AFTER THREE-AND-HALF YEARS’ were pictures of T.J. and me, frozen at sixteen and thirty.

I reached over and gently shook T.J.’s shoulder.

“What, what is it?” he asked, still half asleep.

“Look at the T.V.”

T.J. sat up, blinked, and stared at the screen.

I turned the volume up just in time to hear Larry King say, “I think I speak for everyone when I say there’s a story there.”

“Holy shit,” T.J. said.

Here we go.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 42 – T.J.

I woke up before Anna and ordered eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, hash browns, juice, and coffee. When it arrived, I kissed her until she woke up.

She opened her eyes. “I smell coffee.”

I poured her a cup. She took a drink and sighed. “Oh, that’s good.”

We ate breakfast in bed and then Anna took a shower. I stayed by the phone in case my dad called. As soon as she was done in the bathroom, we switched places. When I walked out, drying myself with a towel, she stared at me.

“You shaved.”

She rubbed the back of her hand against my skin.

I laughed. “You told me if we were ever rescued I’d have to do it myself.”

“I didn’t really mean it.”

The phone rang at 11:00 a.m. My dad had chartered a plane and said we needed to be at the airport in one hour.

“Other than refueling, you’ll fly straight through. We’ll be waiting for you at O’Hare.”

“Dad, Anna’s been trying to reach her sister. Have you talked to her?”

“I got through to her twice. Her line has been busy, but ours has been, too, T.J. The news spread fast. The airport made special arrangements, and they’re allowing us to be at the gate when you land, but the media will be there too. I’ll do what I can to keep them at a reasonable distance.”