Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Chapter Sixty-nine

Instead of returning to the hotel and staying there like the rest of the band, Richie packed up his things into his suitcase. Laptop, phone and book all went into his leather shoulder bag.

A few minutes later, he was outside the hotel waiting for a driver. He was going home. Only for two days but nevertheless, going home. By trying to catch a flight now, he hoped to win some time. This way he'd be there when everyone woke up instead of the afternoon.

When the car arrived, he quickly put the suitcase in the trunk and pulled the shoulder bag along into the back seat.

"There are no flights to Los Angeles anymore tonight. The earliest in the morning is at 7:15 am."
Richie sighed. "That's not early enough, I need it now."
"I can only help you with a flight in the morning, sir. Perhaps another company still flies."
He looked around, there were tons of different airline companies. He prefered using the same one each time but now he had to trust another company. "Thanks anyway." He grabbed the handle bar of his suitcase and went to look at the flight schedules. There had to be something to L.A.

After a long while of trying to read the schedule, because they kept changing screens, he finally found one that said LAX. He looked around for the airlines logo to check in.

His watch read 0:28 and the schedule had read 1:09. He had until 0:39 to be checked in on time. Eleven short minutes.

Finally he spotted the right company and hurried over to the desk.

"I need to get to LAX now." He stated.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do." The lady smiled up at him and started typing.
Instead of waiting quietly, he continued talking. "I've been away from home for a month so Im gonna surprise my wife and kids. We just had a baby in October, he's only 4 months old. Bet he missed me."
The lady smiled back up at him. "I bet he has. There's a flight at 1:09, check in end in six minutes so you'll need to hurry."
"Sure, get that." He said quickly, already looking for ID and a credit card while she typed. He handed it over and she typed the information.
"There's only two seats left in econemy."
He frowned. There was no other way. "Sure."
She continued typing and checked him in, along with baggage and handed him his boarding card and a tag for his carry-on. "Have a nice flight."
"Thank you so much." He said relieved.

By the time he arrived at the gate, boarding had already started but at least he was on time.

Once he sat in his seat with hardly any leg room, he could relax. Only three hours and he would be home. If he'd sleep some now, he'd still be able to sleep with Sarah and wake up at a decent time in the morning.

"Sir?"
He woke up to someone shaking his shoulder.
"Sir? We've landed."

Feeling stupid for sleeping that long, he thanked the stewardess and gathered his stuff to follow the rest of the passengers.

Not having called for a driver, he took a taxi home. Just like flying in econemy class, he didn't like it but right now it was his only option.

Seeing his house gave him a very happy feeling. Home.

He left the suitcase by the staircase, dropping his bag on top of it. He kicked off his shoes and started up the stairs, excited to be home.

Before going to bed, he quickly peeked into Daniel's room. The boy was sound asleep in his bed. He had perfectly adjusted to sleeping the entire night. His son looked peaceful, his hands as fists at either side of his head, his face turned to his stuffed animals on the side.

A few minutes later, he was finally able to go to sleep like everybody else in the house.

Morning came too early. Daniel was up and it had to be heared.

Next to him Sarah got up to get the baby. Richie pulled the sheets tighter around him.

Sarah got back in bed and started feeding Daniel his breakfast. She looked over at Richie. "I'm glad you came home early."
"I missed you." He answered honestly.
"I scheduled a doctor's appointment for Daniel in a few hours so now you can come with me." Sarah explained.
Richie frowned. "More shots?"
Sarah shook her head gently. "Think he's got a bit of a cold. I'm not sure but something is bothering him."
Richie nodded, it wasn't the perfect way to spend time with his son but he'd gladly be there for him.

Again he was happy he had spend most of the night travelling. He could take his son to a doctor's appointment rather than just being informed about it afterwards.

After school he would be able to talk to Ava to try and figure out what was wrong. He needed to know what was bothering his little girl so much that she didn't want to stay at her mom's.

Being home, he could give Sarah a day off so she could relax and he could be daddy for a while. Something he loved to do but had missed out on during the last few weeks.

The tour only had a few more days before a break. He'd be able to finalize their vacation plans to Hawaii and get everything in order. That way it would be a breeze in two weeks.

It would all be worth missing a few hours of sleep but it would all be over too soon.

1 comment:

  1. I can picture Richie doing exactly that. Flying home to be with his family. Hope nothing serious is going on with Danny.

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