I can't say yesterday was the craziest day of my life, because I've had one where I woke up as a Latina woman and others where I didn't get to become myself again because the police were questioning me about the whole thing, but, man, yesterday was something. It kind of blows my mind that the only person back home who will ever believe me is Lambert, and it kind of makes me sad, even if there are some things I don't really want to explain to Mom.
Mostly, how a big part of the reason I was on edge to start was because I'd just found out the night before that Dunia's boyfriend Luis would be coming home that day. I think he was kind of nervous about it, too, because he's not usually one to be low-key; most of his texts before the injury had swagger to them or were kind of over-the-top complimentary about some picture I'd sent or posted (dude really likes Dunia's ass!), although often in a way that makes it reflect well on him for being her boyfriend. Instead he was like "hey, coming home tomorrow, the flight will be kind of late and my folks are getting me but if you're going to be at the airport anyway..." I said of course I would be there, and then texted Dunia right away, saying the day had come.
We'd sort of come up with a plan from watching and participating in other military reunions in the airport, which are way less spontaneous than they look, between letting families meet returning soldiers at the gate, finding the best spots for someone to capture it on camera, and making sure that wheelchairs are treated a lot more carefully than usual (and having me roll them out of the plane, because the military girlfriend is a good look if folks decide to interview absolutely everyone around). This wasn't a fancy, makes-the-news return, because Luis was not deployed to someplace active, so we could sort of scout things out and pick out a spot for Dunia to hang back and interrupt if I was really screwing things up or just overwhelmed.
There was a round trip before that, though, and it was looking pretty uneventful for the first hour or so. That's when I noticed a crowd forming around the restroom in the rear of the plane getting a little anxious, and they said someone had been in there for fifteen minutes and wasn't responding to knocks on the door, but they thought they'd just heard some sort of noise. I told them to step back, knocked myself, and then when I got no response, unlocked the door.
There was an older lady on the floor, with an open prescription bottle of heart medication spilled around her. She wasn't breathing. Someone who had been crowding the door screamed and I told her to get back while I laid her flat, checked her airway, and started performing CPR.
I barely noticed Dunia run down the aisle when she heard the noise, but she grabbed the intercom, informed the captain, and asked if I needed any help. The lady took a well-timed shallow breath at that point, so I said no, and she started telling everyone to return to her seats. A minute or two later, the captain made an announcement, and pretty soon we're descending.
I don't know if any of you have ever had to do this before, but while I imagine it's scary as Hell at the best of times (you're starting out from someone who's technically dead and even if it's not an older person with brittle bones, you've probably gotta break their ribs because they're basically there to keep anything from outside having any impact on the heart), but with the plane banking and the angles changing, you've really gotta straddle the other person and tense up so you don't move. I think Dunia or Allen was holding my shoulders at some point to keep me steady, but I was just trying to stay focused on the job at hand.
Eventually we stop and I vaguely hear Dunia and Allen telling everyone to stay in their seats so the EMTs can get through. They lift the lady into a stretcher and roll her away. Nobody else on the plane gets off with her, so I guess she was traveling alone. I sit in the jump seat and try to catch my breath as the passengers leave the plane.
We're in North Carolina, I think, in a city our airline doesn't usually travel to, so I guess there's a lot of stuff to do, finding a window where we can take off again which would put the co-pilot above his allowed hours on the clock and, meaning they had to bring in a replacement. It's a two-hour delay, which means when we get to DC, the rest of us are over time and have been reassigned to another flight in the morning. Fortunately, I guess, when someone mentions Luis coming home, they make room for me to deadhead back, but between him being in the air and me being in the air, he doesn't get the message that I'll be a few hours late until after he arrives, and he went home with his mami.
I probably could have done the same, but it seemed like a shitty way to treat a disabled veteran, so I got a ride share and headed to their house. It was eleven o'clock by then, but he'd said he'd be up a while. I was incredibly nervous as I rang the doorbell, and was a bit relieved when Luis's mother answered it. "Well, look who decided to show up!"
I was ready to say something about how I probably had more trouble with delays at the airport than you'd think, but she looked too tired for that. "Long day."
She grunted. "Well, come in. Luis is in the living room." I nodded, and took a step in what turned out to be the right direction.
He was sitting on the couch watching a horror movie, which he paused on seeing me. "Well, look at us. Didn't figure you'd be in uniform while I was in my civvies the next time we met."
I chuckled at that, and he started to reach for his crutches on the floor, but I could see from how the end of one leg of his pants was empty that this was going to be a production. "Hey, no need to get up." I walked over and was about to sit next to him when he put his arms around my waist and pulled me down. Before I could squawk, his tongue was inside my mouth and one of his hands was on my bottom while the other held me close.
I was kind of surprised at how quickly I responded. Sure, I'd been psyching myself up for this moment for the past two weeks, and it wasn't the first time a guy had kissed me, but this was different than that time at the club. That man had been playing and exploring and having fun, but Luis had been waiting for this, so there was force behind it. Not that I felt attacked, but you could feel the emotion. And, besides, I had been waiting for it too. I've been Dunia over a year, and while I tried to deny it for a while, it had been a long time since I felt desire in a women's changing room, and even longer since the first time I felt my head turn at a good-looking guy. Not wanting to cheat on Luis was a good reason to not explore that, but now that I was in his grip, it melted away.
And he was pretty nice himself! The army had been keeping him in good shape, he knew every curve of my body even better than I did, and he kind of smelled real good, like, the guys at the club tend to be wearing some sort of body spray or cologne and the folks at the bleach were usually sweaty and covering that up with Axe if anything. Luis, and it feels weird to say it, smelled like a man, and something in my body was really responding to it.
Honestly, I might have been ready to let him have me right there, but his mami made sure to slam the door as she went to her bedroom, which gave us the giggles, and led to us sitting up and straightening our clothes. I got my hair out of its bun to let him talk first, and he took the occasion to repeat that I really did look good in the uniform, and how my dream job was treating me.
"Really good, actually, even today! It's still exciting to take off, and you meet a lot of interesting people, if only for a couple hours. I've kind of been flying the same few routes for the past year, but it's really nifty to spend the afternoon in another city entirely before going home, and I'm gonna try and mix it up a little more from now on. And sometimes, like today, you get a chance to really help someone."
He raised his eyebrow, because I'd only said a medical emergency made me late in my text, so I filled him in. It was honestly kind of embarrassing telling that to a soldier whose leg had been amputated like I had done anything particularly brave or noteworthy, but he said he was proud of me.
Then his phone beeped, and he said it was time for his midnight meds. I hadn't even noticed the pill bottle on the end table, but asked him if I could get him some water. He said no and swallowed them dry before putting them back, turned around so I couldn't see the label. Before I could ask how he was doing, he mentioned they made him pretty drowsy, resituating himself so he was lying down with he head on my lap.
We talked a little more, asking whether Ceci was still a trainwreck, or if I'd heard anything about some friend of his that Dunia had never mentioned to me. After about fifteen minutes, he really did seem to be trailing off, so I asked if he needed help getting upstairs, and he said he figured he'd just sleep down there. I said okay, and held his hand until he nodded off, which almost felt more intimate than the kissing: His grip was tight until it was a little looser, and I felt a little guilty pulling away and catching a ride back to Dunia's house.
Fortunately, Dunia and I have a late flight today, so I could sleep in and won't have to tell her everything until then. Because, wow, it's a lot, and I'm not sure if I'm up for things being this intense all the time!
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