Rainbow Road (19 page)

“H-hospital?” Nelson shivered. “I’m not that sick.”

“Look for one of those blue H signs,” Kyle told Jason.

As they continued down the dark interstate, Nelson stared up at the sky ful of stars and started feeling nauseous, like the car was spinning beneath him. He closed his eyes as Kyle and Jason’s voices drifted in and out, one moment sounding distant, like they’d stepped outside the car, and the next sounding like they were yeling in his ear.

“Come on! Get out! We’re here!”

A hand squeezed Nelson’s shoulder, shaking him. He opened his eyes to see Kyle and Jason. But why were they standing upside down?

“Sit up,” Kyle told him. As Jason hoisted Nelson up, Kyle strapped Nelson’s sandals back onto his feet.

“Where are we?” Nelson asked. His stomach wobbled, like it was about to hurl its contents.

“The hospital,” Jason told him. “Put your arm around my shoulder.”

“Watch his head,” Kyle said, as Jason puled Nelson to his feet.

“I can walk!” Nelson protested, tugging his arm away from Jason. But the moment Jason let go of him, Nelson felt himself sinking like a rock. Jason caught him just in time.

“I’l park the car!” Kyle shouted as Jason walked Nelson toward the door.

Unfortunately, just then Nelson’s burps returned. Jason scolded him, “Dude, turn your head!” Nelson cupped a hand to shield his eyes from the lights of the emergency waiting area.

Jason deposited Nelson in a white chair. “I told you not to eat that seafood.”

When Kyle returned from the car, he puled the health insurance card from Nelson’s walet and hurried to the registration counter. Nelson waited beside Jason, feeling so woozy and out of it he could hardly folow what was going on. He tried closing his eyes, but that only amplified the sounds around him: a screaming baby, coughs and sneezes, an old lady whose lungs rattled, a South Asian doctor shouting something about liver heat or heated liver …

“Here, sign these!” Kyle handed Nelson a balpoint and some forms.

Nelson squinted at the papers. “What do they say?”

“That from now on you’l do everything I tel you.”

Nelson signed where Kyle pointed. Then Kyle left again, and Nelson let his head drop onto Jason’s shoulder.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” Jason pushed him back up.

“I need to lie down, man.” Nelson rested his head onto Jason’s shoulder again.

“You can’t lie down here,” Jason told him, but Nelson’s head was already sliding down Jason’s chest and onto his lap, as Jason sighed in resignation.

“You know he adores you,” Nelson mumbled.

“What?” Jason replied from somewhere above Nelson’s head.

“Kyle adores you.”

“Not anymore,” Jason said. “Not after this trip.”

Nelson didn’t have the strength to argue. A dul ache had started in his forehead. So he simply said, “Yes, he does. He always wil.” And then he blanked out til Kyle said, “You two look cozy.”

Jason replied, “What’s that for?”

“In case he throws up.”

Nelson blinked his eyes open. Kyle was handing a stainless steel bedpan to Jason and said, “I’m going to phone his mom.”

“You sure?” Jason asked. “It’s like three in the morning there.”

“Don’t cal her,” Nelson mumbled, but he was too weak to stop Kyle. Besides, his stomach was feeling queasy again, even more than before. His throat tightened and his stomach started wrenching.

“What the heck am I supposed to do with this?” Jason muttered at the bedpan.

“I don’t know,” Nelson said weakly. “But I think I’m going to vomit.”

Immediately, Jason propped him up. “Wait!” He whirled around, his eyes franticaly scanning the room. “Come on!” He hauled Nelson to his feet, hurrying him past the old people, moms with kids, and coughing guys toward the rest room.

Nelson felt his saliva glands on overdrive as he tried to hold his barfing down a few more seconds. Jason slammed the bathroom door open. Nelson’s stomach gave a spasm. Jason rushed him toward the washbasin and Nelson started puking.

As Nelson heaved and hurled, Jason held him by the waist to keep him propped up, while with his other hand he gripped Nelson’s forehead to keep it from hitting the faucet.

Nelson couldn’t tel how long it lasted, but he did keep hearing Jason mutter “Whoa, dude!”—and not in an appreciative way.

“I think I’m done,” Nelson said at last. He felt like he’d upchucked al his bodily organs. His nasal passages burned from bile.

“Are you sure?” Jason asked testily.

Nelson nodded and Jason let go of him, but Nelson felt too weak to stand. He leaned a shoulder against the wal and slumped down toward the cold tile floor.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” Jason tried to catch him.

“I’m sorry,” Nelson said in a raspy voice. His eyes were stinging. “I should’ve listened to you and not eaten the seafood.”

“Hey,” Jason said.“You crying?”

“No.” Nelson tried to choke down his sobs but that only made the inside of his nose burn more. His throat felt scratchy. His jaw hurt. His body felt like jely.

Jason grabbed a paper towel and wiped it across Nelson’s face. “Hey, come on. Let’s go find Kyle. He’s going to wonder what happened.” Then Jason and Kyle were leading Nelson by the elbows into a curtained alcove.

“What did his mom say?” Jason asked Kyle.

“She freaked out, said to cal her as soon as he sees the doctor.”

A petite nurse the size of a twelve-year-old took Nelson’s temperature and blood pressure. Then a doctor with a long black ponytail, wearing a white lab coat, hurried in. “Hey, guys. What happened to him?”

Kyle replied. “I think he got food poisoning at dinner.”

“I told him not to eat the seafood,” added Jason.

The doc glanced at Nelson’s pink ’do. “I like your hair.”

“I like yours.” Nelson smiled. “Are you Indian?”

“Yep, Hopi.” Doc Dude lifted a depressor to Nelson’s mouth. “Open up.”

“He just vomited,” Jason warned him.

“That’s okay,” Doc said.

As soon as the depressor was out he told Nelson, “Please take off your shirt and lie back.” Doc rubbed his hands together and rested them on Nelson’s bare midriff. His palms felt warm.

“Tel me if this feels tender,” Doc said. The statement confused Nelson as he stared up into Doc’s beautiful dark eyes, barely able to concentrate on answering a barrage of questions: “Have you experienced any loss of breath? Bleeding? Seizures? Chest pain? Diarrhea? Fever? Chils? Abdominal pains? Nausea?

Weakness? Headache?”

“Okay,” Doc said at last. “Put your shirt back on. It looks like food poisoning.” He told Nelson he’d be back to normal within twelve to forty-eight hours and wanted to put him on a saline IV and have him stay for observation for a couple of hours.

“You have to cal your mom first,” Kyle told Nelson. “She wants to know you’re okay.”

“Can’t you just tel her?” Nelson pleaded, wanting to curl up.

“Come on, man.” Jason puled him to his feet. “She wants to hear your voice.”

“She wants to yel at me,” Nelson countered, but Kyle and Jason dragged him to the pay phone.

His mom didn’t yel. From her voice, Nelson could tel she’d been crying.

“I’m okay, Mom,” he assured her and found himself crying along with her, even though it embarrassed him that Kyle and Jason were standing there watching.

He wasn’t aware of much after that, except the nurse attaching an IV to his arm; trying to sleep beneath the bright waiting room lights; the doctor saying, “He can go now. Remember he has to stay hydrated. Lots and lots of water”; Jason carrying him to the car; lying on the backseat; Kyle saying, “You think the campground’s going to let us in at three in the morning?”; the sound of the trunk opening; being carried into the tent; and Kyle whispering, “You scared me, buddy.” Then Nelson crashed into the deepest sleep.

Kyle lay awake in his sleeping bag, fretting about Nelson. What would happen to him when Kyle went away to colege? Who would look after him?

Not that Kyle seemed to have much success at keeping him out of trouble. Kyle had felt like a failure having to tel Mrs. Glassman her son was in the ER. Hadn’t Kyle promised to look after him?

“I’m realy sorry,” he told her over the phone. “Jason warned him not to eat the seafood, but he wouldn’t stop.”

“That’s not your fault,” she assured him. Kyle could understand that in his head, but in his heart he felt like he’d screwed up.

After al, Nelson was his most loyal friend ever. He’d helped Kyle make it through high school. He’d gotten Kyle to get over his fears about being gay. He’d encouraged him to come out to his parents. And he’d given him the nerve to go after Jason.

What would his life have been like without Nelson? Seeing him so sick and feverish had shaken Kyle. And it made him wonder: How would he make it without Nelson when he had to leave for colege?

Of course they’d stay friends, talk on the phone, and hang out during school vacations, but that was way different from spending almost 24/7 together, like during the past four years.

On the other side of Kyle’s sleeping bag, Jason roled over, and Kyle’s thoughts wandered to how both good and confusing it had been to watch Nelson and Jason become better friends during the trip.

He’d enjoyed watching them get closer. But it irked him how Nelson accepted Jason after he did stuff Kyle didn’t like—such as kissing that girl or getting into a spat with Esau’s dad—or when they egged each other on, like with the truck chase.

This whole trip had been confusing when it came to Jason. It felt like Jason had changed. Every day he was revealing sides of himself that Kyle had never realized were there. Although Kyle had known Jason was bi, impulsive, stubborn, and had a trigger temper, he’d never been confronted with al of who Jason was on such a daily basis.

Kyle had thought this trip would be their honeymoon. Instead he’d learned his dream lover snored, took dumps, and sometimes got realy, realy stinky after basketbal practice. Granted, those were al pretty superficial things, but when combined with the deeper stuff it made Kyle question: was Jason realy The One?

From the sleeping bag beside Kyle, Jason’s throat gurgled a gentle snore and Kyle covered his head with his pilow, tired and worn-out.

Almost immediately he fel into dreams where he was running through the desert, beneath the scorching sun, except … was he naked? He brought his hand down to cover his privates, sprinting so no one would see him. His heart thundered with every step. His lungs ached as if ready to burst. He stumbled, ready to colapse, exhausted. Except in his gut he knew he had to get someplace important. Someone was in danger. They needed him urgently. If he didn’t get there it would be too late. He sprinted faster, panting, his throat parched.

The desert became hospital halways, lined with doors and medical files. Kyle burst through one door, turned, ran down another hal. His heart beat harder, from dread.

Then a heaviness came over him. Beneath the bright light of a room so cold it made him shiver waited a gurney. On top of it lay a sleeping bag with a body inside.

And Kyle knew he was too late. The person he’d come to save had died.

He reached for the zipper, hand trembling, and slowly puled it down, revealing the familiar soft brown curls. Inside the bag lay Jason, stiff and silent, eyes closed, his lips silent and lifeless. A wave of grief crashed down on Kyle. His heart ached as he colapsed to his knees, crying.

His own sobbing woke him, coughing and choking inside the tent. Across the darkness of night he reached for real-life Jason, but Kyle’s arms landed on empty floor. No sleeping bag. No Jason.

Kyle sat up, trying to clear his sleepy brain. Where was he? He remembered driving through the desert … a hospital, but … had Jason realy died? If not, where
was
he?

“Jason?” Kyle’s heart pounded as he groped for his glasses, but he was too panicked to find them.

“Jason?” he caled again, climbing over Nelson and tugging on the zipper to the door.

Stepping outside, his foot hit something. A voice shouted, “Hey!” and Kyle tumbled to the ground.

“Damn!” Jason cursed. “You kicked me.”

Kyle pushed himself off Jason’s lumpy sleeping bag. “What the hel are you doing out here?”

“Man!” Jason rubbed his side. “That hurt.”

“Wel, you scared the crap out of me,” Kyle replied, sitting up beside him.

“Sorry,” Jason said quietly. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“You were
sleeping
out here?” Kyle gazed around at the blurry sand and stone of the campsite.

When the boys had arrived at the campground around three A.M., they’d found a night check-in box. The only site available was little more than a patch of rock and dust everyone else at the campground had passed up. In addition to the bleakness of the setting, it was now realy cold.

“It’s freezing!” Kyle wrapped his arms around the thin sleeves of his T-shirt. “Why didn’t you tel me you were coming out here?”

“You were sleeping.”

“Wel, you scared the crap out of me,” Kyle repeated, and turned to climb back into the tent. At least now he knew Jason wasn’t dead. But as Kyle was about to step inside, Jason’s hand rested on his calf. “Did you notice the stars?”

Kyle stopped and glanced up. “I don’t have my glasses on.” But even without his specs, he could see a milion points of light twinkling against the black desert sky.

The briliance of it took his breath away.

“They were realy bright a while ago,” Jason said softly. “They’re starting to fade a little now. You can see over there where the sun’s going to come up.” Kyle looked in the direction Jason pointed and wrapped his arms around himself more tightly, shivering from both cold and awe.

“Hey,” Jason said, almost whispering. “You want to climb in?”

Kyle glanced down at the sleeping bag. “We can’t both fit in there.” Besides, even though he was glad Jason wasn’t dead, he stil felt distant from him.

“Come on,” Jason whispered, unzipping his sleeping bag halfway.

“Jason! I’m cold, I’m sleepy, and we both won’t fit in there.”

“Don’t be so stubborn.” Jason tugged on Kyle’s leg.

“
Me?
Who’s being—? Okay, fine. You’l see.”