Love from a to Z

ADAM
THURSDAY, MARCH 14
ODDITY:
JUSTIFIED ENDS
I 
WOKE UP TO THE
unusual scenario of actual voice calls—two of them—happening
simultaneously. My phone, on the dresser, was ringing as Connor stood by
my bed, nudging me awake, holding out his phone. He’d opted to sleep on
the floor of the guest room I stayed in, in case I needed anything.
His arm was now across his stomach, holding the top of the sleeping bag
that was encasing his legs. He must have hopped over with it like some kind
of weird, bouncy caterpillar.
I can see the colors of the plaid lining the sleeping bag. Red, green, and
white.
I blinked hard. My vision was clearing.
I wasn’t seeing through a dense layer of jelly.
Instead, things were only slightly blurry.
I felt an immense wave of gratitude rising inside.
“It’s Ms. Raymond on here. And . . .” Connor paused and, after I’d taken
his phone, hopped over to the dresser to glance at my phone. He continued,
“Your sister, Hanna, on your phone. She’s calling on FaceTime.”
I muted Ms. Raymond’s call and shook my head, the euphoria backing
up. “No, don’t pick up. I’ll call her later. When I’m more ready.”
“She’s sending angry emojis.”
I shook my head again and unmuted the phone. “Hi, Ms. Raymond?”
“How are you, Adam?”
“Better. My vision’s much better. Feeling better too. I’m still in bed,
though.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better and resting. I’ve been thinking about you
all night,” she said. “I’m also readying everything for you to get your IV

---

here. I was thinking, I can come pick you up around twelve thirty? The
nurse is scheduled to come by at one thirty. I thought if you got here early,
you’ll have time to get comfortable, get ready.”
“Sure. Though Connor told me he’d drop me, so I don’t think you need to
worry about picking me up. That okay, Connor?” I asked, as Connor settled
back into his spot on the floor, bunching a pillow before placing his head on
it.
I can see each polka dot on the pillow. Brown and pink.
“Yep.” He nodded, then lifted and bent his arms into upside-down Vs to
cradle his head. He looked at the ceiling. “We’re hanging out at the souk for
lunch, so it’s on my way.”
“Yeah, he’ll drop me. He’s going to Souq Waqif.”
“That’s the other thing. I didn’t know how you’d feel if Zayneb, my
niece, was home while you got your treatment, but I found out she’ll be out,
at the souk as well. So no worries on that front.”
That had entered my brain briefly. But I hadn’t let it bother me too much,
because, really, if she saw me with an IV drip, she would be just another
stranger who knew I had MS.
She must be hanging around with the DIS crew a lot. To be going to the
souk with them today.
Must be going dune bashing with them this weekend, too.
I didn’t need perfect vision to imagine her eyes widening at the beauty of
the desert. At the way the dunes rippled, visual echoes of one another as far
as the eye could see, varying shades of orangey brown.
She’d be moved. And have fun. With everyone.
The euphoria deflated further.
“Okay, I’ll be at your place at one then.” I paused. “Thanks again, Ms.
Raymond.”
I wanted to say more to her but not now.
Connor’s a caring guy, but he wouldn’t get that I wanted to say, Thanks
for filling in for Mom like only her best friend would.
• • •
I succumbed to FaceTiming Hanna, first checking my actual face in the
phone’s camera. Checking if she’d be able to tell something was going on
with me.

---

I looked sort of normal, only slightly puffier.
“WHERE ARE YOU, ADAM?” She’d been sitting at the kitchen table
when she answered, but with a jolt, she stood up with her hands on her hips,
wearing a frown under front bangs that were more askew than usual. I could
see the edges of Stillwater on the chair beside her. “THIS IS NOT FAIR!
YOU’RE ALWAYS WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND NOT YOUR FAMILY.
YOU’RE. BEING. MEAN!”
Connor chuckled from the floor.
“Whoa, I’m coming home. Around three o’clock, maybe four,” I
reassured her.
She sat back down. “Then can we go to the new exhibit?”
“What exhibit?”
“The one I told you about! The Rare Jewels of an Empire exhibit? At the
museum?”
I remembered. She’d talked about it the day I arrived. When I gave her
the azurite.
She’d said she wanted to check the display and then go shopping at the
museum shop to add the special rocks connected to the exhibit to her rock
collection.
“Oh, yeah. Okay. But not today.” I scanned my brain. I had to come up
with something. “Let’s go Sunday.”
My treatments will be done by then, and I will have had one extra day to
rest. Maybe I’ll feel better enough to walk around the Museum of Islamic
Art?
“Why can’t we go today? I thought you were coming to Doha to visit me.
Do things with me. And to do things with Dad, too, cause he wants to come
to the exhibit too! At least he agreed to it!” She stood back up, her hands
finding their way to her hips again.
But then she sat down abruptly, grabbing Stillwater into her lap. I could
see her face beginning to crumble.
Hanna rarely cried, so I was surprised. “Hanna? I can’t go today, but it’s
not because of my friends. Hey, don’t cry.”
She buried her face into the top of Stillwater’s black-and-murky-white
head. He stared at me un-panda-like, with weighty disapproval, loyalty to
Hanna his first duty.
Connor stood up and dropped his sleeping bag, revealing Pikachu boxers,
with Poké Balls down the front. I frowned at the sight.

---

“Gift from Nancy, my ex-TA,” he whispered. “My hot girlfriend,
Nancy?”
I frowned again and looked back at Stillwater. Hanna’s face had
completely disappeared from view.
Connor came and knelt down by the bed, behind my phone. “So I don’t
scare her,” he said quietly to me. “With my Pokémon boxers. Play along,
buddy.”
He then raised his voice, off camera. “Hey, Adam, what are you doing,
man? Why you on your phone? I thought you were going to hang with us?
We’re going to Souq Waqif this afternoon.”
I tilted my head. I didn’t know where this was going. “Nah, I can’t.”
“Why? You’ve been in Doha almost a week, and we never see you, man.
You’ve been working on that room downstairs in your house all the time.”
The top of Hanna’s head emerged a tiny bit from Stillwater’s fur.
Whatever it was that Connor was doing—it was working. “Listen, I gotta
finish that room. It’s like this thing my mom made with me a long time ago,
a house and garden in a jar. This is like that but different, too, because it’s
bigger. It’s a world in a room.”
Hanna’s head lifted a bit more, and, from the floor by the bed, Connor
made a confused face. He had no idea what I was talking about.
But Hanna did.
“That’s why I’m so busy, man. I gotta find the right bits, make the right
pieces, gotta go to Al Rawnaq, the different store locations to find special