Page 59 of In the Shadows

Joey reached over, placing his hand over hers resting on the table. “I’m really okay, Mom.”

That’s the first time he’d called her that in front of Joe. I wasn’t sure how he’d take it, but when I looked at him he was smiling fondly back at us. We sat and chatted about how the tour had been up until the accident. Diamond and I filled them in on Rob’s funeral and how the Maiden guys really went above and beyond for us. Collectively we agreed that we needed to find a way to do something cool for them. Unfortunately, none of us had any ideas yet.

I needed to get more clothes and some other stuff we needed to order since we could no longer show our faces at the mall and we also needed a new band laptop. Texting Easton, I put him in charge of that since he was the resident techie. After saying our goodbyes, we headed back to Joe’s so Joey could nap while I got to work replacing the things that we’d lost. Hopefully the UPS driver wouldn’t drop the packages and run, getting our new shit stolen was not my ideal way of starting things off.

Dinner that night was low key. Maggie, Brad, and Jackson joined us for pizza and beer. Joey had soda due to the pain meds he was still taking. Mixing the two wasn’t an option. He wanted me to help him get off them, out of fear of addiction which I had no qualms doing. But by the same token, I didn’t want him to be in pain. He’d have to rate it on a scale of one to ten for me and anything over a five would warrant a dosage.

Joey fell asleep on my lap while we were sitting around watching movies with Brad and Jackson, Joe and Maggie had walked down the street to the bar for drinks. The boys helped me get Joey to bed since Diamond went out trolling for the night. Joey barely woke up long enough for us to get him situated before he was snoring again. I hoped he hadn’t over exerted himself because that could be detrimental to his new PT regimen that started the next day. Due to the nature of his injuries versus mine, his would be far more labor intensive. I played Yahtzee on my phone until the battery died, plugged it in and gave in to the sleep that had been calling my name.

I’d rented a car that was being delivered first thing in the morning, but we really needed to buy one of our own. The old van wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I needed to get a vote going with the guys about selling the old gal. We’d made more than enough money to purchase our own, individual vehicles so it seemed ridiculous to hold on to it when it could help some other garage band get their show on the road.

We drove to our appointments with Dr. Harris, which Dr. Stone had set up before we left Boston. Dr. Harris was a previous colleague of his that specialized in Sports Medicine rehabs. His PT clinic was geared toward the athletic spectrum, but given what we did for a living, Dr. Stone felt his area of expertise would be best suited to our needs. He was used to dealing with high profile clientele, so the clinic was built with underground parking and a secluded entrance.

I was done with my session before Joey and was waiting in the lobby reading a Sports Illustrated Magazine of all things. He emerged a half hour later looking wrecked as hell which immediately drew me to my feet.

“Is everything okay?” I asked as I warily approached him.

The doctor stood beside him. “Seems my sessions are a bit more strenuous than they were in the hospital. Tomorrow we’ll start with a full body massage,” he promised, looking at Joey. “Ricky,” he turned to me, “I’d like to see him work his way off the pain meds, but if he needs one tonight go ahead and give it to him. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

A doctor that wanted to wean a patient off meds? This guy had me sold on that statement alone.

“Hey, wanna grab some lunch before I drop you off at home?” I asked him, once we were inside the rental car.

“Drop me off? Where are you going?”

“I was gonna go meet with a car dealer Sal set me up with. I think we’ve progressed past the garage band van and it’s time to be big boys and buy a vehicle of our own.” I wanted to ask him about buying a house together as well, but now didn’t feel like the right time to approach it.

“I’d like to go with you, unless you’d rather I not.” Unsure Joey, I wasn’t used to and it was pulling at my heartstrings.

“You know I’d love for you to go with me, but I know you’re tired. You and I will be the ones riding in it the most so I’d like to make sure it works for you too.” After grabbing a quick bite for lunch, we drove to the dealership to meet with Aaron Tuille, the man Sal set us up with. I’d already been reviewing SUV’s online and had it narrowed down to a couple of models I’d asked him to pull out for us to test drive. Four hours later, we were the proud owners of a 2018 Range Rover. We couldn’t pick it up for a week, allowing them to complete the add-ons we’d made, but it was our first purchase together.

We chatted animatedly about our first ‘couple’ purchase we’d made and Joey went on and on about wanting to be able to get out and about more. When we got inside, he plopped down on the couch, grabbing the remote much to Diamond’s dismay.

“Hey fucker, I was watching that.”

“You were watchingThe Chew? You expect me to believe that you were interested in a cooking show?” Joey eyed him calling bullshit on his outburst.

“Hey, I’m a diverse man. I have many layers,” he joked and we both cracked up.

“All right, diverse man,” Joey tossed him the remote. “Have at it.”

I took my place beside Joey while he fidgeted about. “Ugh, I’m tired of being tired and being stuck indoors.”

Here goes nothing. “I know what we could do.”

“What?” he asked.

“Let’s go look at houses.” Not only did that statement grab Joey’s attention, but Diamond’s too.

“Dude, I’m game. Let’s roll,” he stood staring back at us.

“Huh, why?” Joey asked.

“Um, so we can buy one.” I held my breath, waiting to see if I was going to get shot down.

“Together or separately?”

“Well, look at houses together to, um, buy one together?” I stated in the form of a question.

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