SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER 5
As I leave their house, I will admit that I feel like I can breathe a bit better, like the tightness in my chest has released somewhat, a weight lifted.
Finally arriving back at the hotel, I stopped at my Jeep and grabbed my phone charger. Jogging back up the steps I come to stand in front of my door. Pulling the hotel key from my black back jeans pocket, I swipe the card through the key reader, watching for the mechanism to unlock and the green button to light up. Once in my room, I picked up my phone from the desk, plugged it into the U.S.B. outlet by the side of my bed and then finally I decided to turn it back on.
For nearly five minutes all I could hear coming from my phone were beeps, chimes and tings. When I was able to determine that nothing more was going to come through, I pulled my phone out of the charger and then I began to start scrolling through everything. I have well over one hundred unread text messages, and a voice mail box filled to the max with unheard voice messages. Most of the text messages were along the lines of, ‘where are you? Are you okay?’ Others were a bit harsher as they were written in all caps, and I could honestly feel the anger as they sent their text messages.
Chris: DUDE WHERE ARE YOU?
Devon: WHAT THE HELL, DOM?
Mom: ANSWER YOUR PHONE, MR.!
Etc., etc., I sighed.
A good portion, probably fifty or so text messages are from my parents. The others all appear to be from my brother Devon, and two best friends, Chris and Riley. I think I even saw a couple from Jessica, yeah, those will be ignored because I definitely don’t want to have to deal with her on top of everything else I’ve been coping with. Seriously though, how can they think I was even close to okay when I left? Yeah, you know, the love of my life dies, let me go ahead and bounce right back from that experience! Only the worst thing that could have ever happened to me and they want to be upset that I shut myself off from the world; what a joke. Yes, I’m a bit frustrated, even a bit angry by this, but come on!
Time for the voice messages! As much as I don’t want to hear them, I enter the code to retrieve them anyway, and let them play out. Dad left a few and I could hear the concern in his voice. Same with Grandma Jean who had left a few too. Devon and the guys had left a couple each, but the majority were left by my mom. I felt horrible even though I shouldn’t have. But towards the end of the messages, I could hear the panic, concern and then the desperation in her voice for me to answer my phone. Breathing in deeply, I exhaled slowly, hesitating with my index finger hovering over the green phone image for just a second before pushing the button.
Not even seconds after hitting the call button the other end of the line was answered and I wondered if she had let the phone out of her sight at all since I had left. “Dominic? Dom is that you?” I can hear my mom crying into the phone. It comforts me in a way that only a mother’s voice could as I hear her talking to me.
“Hey mom.” And that was all I was able to say before she was interrupting me with question after question.
“Where in the world are you? Do you know how worried I’ve been about you? How could you do this to me, your own mother! I understand you needed space, but why did you have to shut your phone off.” She is nearly sobbing at this point and I’m at a loss for words to say to calm her down.
“Mom. Mom! Calm down please,” I beg her before exhaling a heavy sigh, “I’m in New Orleans but I will be home in a couple of days, okay? No, it takes about two days if I drive straight through the night. Yes, I promise, I will be home by Saturday evening at the absolute latest. Yes mom, I know, I love you too. Okay, goodbye.”
How can such a simple conversation be so exhausting? I hit end on my phone, plugged it back into its charger again, laid it on the bedside stand and then crawled into the bed.
*
Waking early Wednesday morning, I gathered up the few meager items I had lying around the room and walked down to the office to let them know I was checking out. I wanted to make one stop before I hit the road home.
I drove down a couple of streets until I spotted that symbol again and then parked my car. I went inside specifically looking for Raegan this time. As I searched for her, I could hear some voices filtering out an open door in the back half of the store that had a sign ‘EMPLOYEE’S ONLY’ on it. So, I decided to shout in that general direction for her. “Hey, Raegan? Are you back there? It’s me, Dominic Salvino. I was hoping I could chat with you for a minute.” I see her face light up as she comes walking out of the back room and started to rethink what I wanted to say to her. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea, the wrong impression from me when I say what I had planned to tell her.
“Hey Dominic, what can I do for you?” she asked, the smile never leaving her lips.
“I’m heading back to Cape Cod. I just wanted to swing by and let you know and also to thank you and your Coven for helping me be able to breathe through my pain a bit better now.” I see sadness touch her eyes as I say this, but I continue to talk anyway. “Should you ever find yourself in the Cape, know that there will always be a place for you and your Coven to stay within the Silver-Heart Community.”
Suddenly I feel her arms wrap around my waist as she surprised me with a hug. I hesitantly drop my arms into a sort of half hug, patting her on the back as she talks to me. “Take care of yourself, Dominic. And who knows what the future holds, maybe I will see you again.” Raegan steps back just then releasing me from her hug, offering me one final smile and maybe I miss read her eyes, but I swear there is a hint of a mischievous sparkle in them.
I say farewell to her and then walk out the door and hop into my Jeep. It’s time to go home, back to my family. I didn’t realize until just then how homesick I was and how much I truly missed all of them.
Mom called me a dozen times and it’s not even 1 o’clock in the afternoon yet. I have no clue how many times I had to promise, that if I started to get tired that I would stop and rest. “Don’t try driving straight through Dom, promise me you’ll stop and get a hotel room if you get too tired.” That sentence was at the end of every conversation with her.
Finally, I ended up telling her that if she would stop calling me so much, I could get a lot more driving in. I know my words hurt her feelings, but I really needed to not be constantly distracted by her.
The drive was much easier to focus on without all the constant interruptions. Hour 12 of my drive I decided that I was simply too tired to travel any further and got myself a hotel room, just thirteen hours left until I would be home.