The Tour

nine / welcome home

Living in Hawaii was not always the most convenient thing. My charger, leftover meal, and miscellaneous luggage were all piled around me as I attempted to lie across the seats in the terminal. The crowds of people had died down as the clock passed twelve, and there were now just a few people waiting to board the red eye to Oahu.

    I had set my phone to ring loudly hours ago, hoping to prevent myself from napping through any calls. The extra two dollars that I had paid to receive messages in the air had gone to waste when I received no texts on either of the past two flights.

    Finally, the flight attendant called for us to board the flight. Most of the other people on the flight seemed about as exhausted as me, the majority of them being elderly people who were probably on their way to enjoy their timeshare. However, there were a pair of young boys who seemed a little two amped up for two in the morning. One was jumping back and forth between his parents, and the other was running circles around the line with his arms outstretched like a plane. I let out an involuntary sigh before pushing my headphones tighter over my ears.

    An orange glow made its way into the darked cabin four hours into the flight. I rubbed my eyes before feeling my heart jolt as I reached to flip my phone over. Nothing. More accurately, nothing important. There was a notification from the WSL that proclaimed that I had unexpectedly dropped out of the competition due to "a family emergency".

Hopefully the press wouldn't get too crazy. The last thing that Will needed was a bunch of people showing up at the hospital looking at a hurt kid and a professional surfer. That was, if Will made it through the day of surgery alive.

A small part of me kept bringing up the fact that if he had somehow died on the operating table, no one would call me. They would wait until I showed up at the hospital, and give me a hug, and cry. An even smaller part of me attempted to shut that voice out, but the remaining thirty minutes of the flight were a battle.

The Uber to the hospital wasn't any easier. I wiped my sweaty hands onto my sweatshirt countless times, staring blankly out the window and waiting for the view of the hospital to appear.

Eventually, I was able to make my way into the waiting room outside of the Intensive Care Unit. Noah and his parents were huddled in one corner while my brother and parents sat in the chairs across from them. Noah was leaning forward onto his knees, chewing on his lip as he stared blankly at his phone. Evan was the first person to notice me, and he forced out a thin smile before gesturing to the seat next to him.

I slid into it quickly, nodding at everyone else who had looked up at me. It appeared that they had already heard that I was coming, and were much more focused on whatever was going on behind the closed door that was attached to the waiting room.

My eyes were starting to close after a couple of hours of waiting. We hadn't heard anything, and I had eventually leaned up against Evan in an attempt to sleep. The creak of a door brought me back to my senses.

"I'm looking for the family of Will Sanders?" A nurse poked her head out into the waiting room. Will's parents stood up quickly, mine right behind them. "Immediate family only, I'm afraid."

It seemed like only minutes had gone by when Noah was shaking me awake. "You've been out for three hours. The doctor said that you can come in now."

I glanced at Evan who was also rubbing his eyes before looking back to Noah. "He's okay?"

"He's alive, at least." Noah let out a sigh before turning towards the door.

The hallway was lined with machines that looked dismal under the fluorescent light. Beeping could be heard from many of the rooms, and a couple of nurses manned the front station. Noah progressed towards the end of the hall where one lone window looked out into the night sky before making his way into the last door on the left.

The room was tiny, especially for the number of people who were already there. Rachel and Koa sat beside their son in his hospital bed. She was tentatively brushing his hair out of his face, trying to avoid touching the open scratches.

Will looked up when our contingent came into the room. My parents entered first, followed by my brother who walked over to Will and gave him an awkward hug. There was little movement on Will's part, and Evan backed towards the doorway again when they finished.

Will was pale and looked smaller than normal in the bed. Small cuts covered every visible part of him, which was mostly just his arms and face. His legs were extended straight in front of him and were covered by a blanket, and the hospital gown covered everything else. A whiteboard behind him spelled out his name and a long list of medications that needed to be administered.

He looked exhausted as he leaned his head back and sighed. "Just tell them, mom."

Rachel gave her son a worried look before turning to us, "When he was under the wave, Will was thrown into the reef. While underwater he obtained severe trauma to his spine," she clasped her son's hand in her own, "he can't feel anything below his waist. The surgeons did everything that they could, but he can't move anything below the point of the injury. The doctor said that with some spinal trauma there's a chance to recover some movement, but... we shouldn't count on it. The odds are very slim he'll ever regain real mobility."

"Should have just let me drown," Will mumbled quietly, looking down at his hands.

Rachel blinked back tears as Koa drew his arm around his wife. Evan stepped forward, clearly upset. "Alright kid, this sucks. This is absolutely awful. But you know what would have been worse? Knowing that I let my best friend die out there. Living with the knowledge that I lost you for the rest of my life," he said quickly before wiping his eyes.

Previously, I had been standing behind Evan in the doorway. His sudden movement gave me a much better look into the small room, but it also made me much more visible to people on the far side of the room. Will looked like he was about to respond to Evan when his eyes landed on me.

Will's gaze hardened as soon as we made eye contact. "What the hell are you doing here?"

On a more lighthearted note, the other day I was watching the Braves with my family and my mom asked me who I was a fan of. I pointed out Dansby Swanson and my dad said, "He is a pretty boy." That gave me a good laugh so hopefully you are at least mildly amused :)))

also I leave for college soon but I'm really going to try and write this week but we all can guess how that usually ends up. Either way, I'll see you guys soon. Thanks for reading.

also update part 3 I decided to make a new cover and change this at midnight so idk what's going on by lemme know which one you prefer :)