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Chapter Nine: Home Again
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Taberah spent a few days in the hospital, regaining his strength, but the staff could see that he was eager to escape its confines. He avidly read the three Bibles, plus a Latin-English dictionary Aed had procured; Aed for his part was reading a book Dr. Pabst had given him on the art of crossing cultures, both for his own sake and to be able to explain things to Taberah. He had never kissed a man on the lips before -- not even his own son -- but when he saw how delighted Taberah was at Noah giving him a kiss, he set his mind to enter Taberah's world as much as possible. He slowly realized, with certainty, that his willingness to do one thing against his gut reactions was only a shadow of what Taberah was willing to, and had to be willing to, do. He was not surprised when Noah explained to him that culture shock is one of the top causes of suicide, ranking with divorce.
Getting him home from the hospital bore an unexpected surprise. Taberah was happy to be walking out of the hospital, and then stiffened when he saw that they were walking towards Aed's car, a sleek hybrid between a minivan, a sport utility vehicle, and a station wagon. Noah said, "He's had more trauma in the past two weeks than most of us have in a year; is there any way to circumvent a car trip?
Nathella looked at Aed for a moment, and said, "We can walk."
Aed winced. "It's eighty-five degrees, and we're eight miles from home. It will take two hours to walk home!"
Nathella said, "I'll walk with him. He has a lot of extra energy. Why don't you drive home and make lemonade?"
Aed said, "Um, you want to be alone with him, even in public? I know he hasn't given us his last surprise."
"I'd rather take whatever risks there are than force that child through a car ride. And trusting people can make them worthy of being trusted. Honey, did he ride in a car with the INS?"
"Uh... I'll walk, too, and we can get the car later."
Noah said, "If you give me your keys, I'll get my son, and we can drop your car off at your house."
Three hours later, the trio arrived at home, hot, sweaty, tired, and parched. They made a gallon of lemonade, and then another; it took two and a half gallons of lemonade to fill them all. Aed expected a conversation of some sort, but Taberah was happy to sit in a chair and smile and fall asleep.
Aed expected it would be an interesting endeavor to teach Taberah to take a shower.
Jonathan's Corner
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Firestorm 2034 >
Chapter Nine: Home Again
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