“It’s just time for y’all move on. Thank you for taking part in bringing my daughter home, no matter how ungrateful she acts.” Henry softly smiled. “Come here.” Henry stood up, and she held him tight. “You take care of yourself and that beautiful Elaina. Make sure you get to some place safe before Claire has that baby.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I will.”
“I want you to put forth an effort to quitting your drinking soon, as well.”
“I will.” She cupped her hands around his face and smiled. She kissed each cheek, then let him go. Henry felt a little overwhelmed with the motherly love that Addie was showing him.
***
Henry came into the living room. He watched the busy work happening before him. Every time Nick walked by, his eyes threw daggers. I really wished I understood what happened, but I didn’t want to ask. Henry helped carry the rest of the supplies out to the truck.
“Keys?” He held his hand out to me.
“I don’t think so. I watched you drink a little too much. I’ll drive until you…well, until I’m too tired.” I wanted to say “until you sober up”, but it could take months for that to happen.
Everything was packed up and we were ready to roll. Addie hugged every one of us. Then Rosa held her hand out to Henry, offering up an apology. He accepted. Justin thanked him and, of course, Shay just walked past him. Julianna ran up to Henry. He kneeled down to meet her.
“Thank you, Mr. Henry.”
“You are very welcome, my little love.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.
He stood up with her hanging on to him. He held onto her, then set her down. “I have a job for you.” Her dark brown, watery eyes grew bright.
“A job?” I watched the exchange and became choked up. Even in his darkest days, such innocence could put a smile on his face. I felt hopeful for him.
“Yes.” Henry held out his pinky. “Now, you pinky swear that you will help Ms. Addie with everything you can. You have to help in the house, out in the garden, and you are not to leave the house alone. Understood?”
She nodded and smiled. Then she wrapped her tiny pinky around Henry’s. “Pinky swear. Will we ever see each other again?”
“I sure hope so, little love. I sure hope so.” He hugged her again and stood up. I took his good hand in mine. He looked at me, and the tears were flowing down my face.
I heard another sniffle, and looked over toward Thomas. He was holding Shay while she cried. I had a feeling the two quiet wall flowers connected more than we all knew.
We all piled into the truck. I turned the key, put it in gear, and backed out of the driveway. We drove south for about an hour before anyone said a single thing. I was dreading getting to North Carolina. The whole Gunther ordeal was making me have terrible anxiety since I knew we were closer than I wanted to be.
Chapter 42
I
t was another two months or so before we made it to the border of North Carolina. I wasn’t exactly sure of the timing, but it was an eternity. We couldn’t believe it took so long, but we ran into so many crazy things. Between undeads, survivors, bombed roads, and having to hunt for gas, food, and booze, I thought we would never get there…not that I wanted to get there.
When I saw the “Welcome to North Carolina” sign, it seemed quite bizarre that it was still standing. That was the first welcome sign I had seen since we had been traveling. Most were either taken out by vehicles or the bombings.
Claire was starting to show a cute little pooch. I liked to touch it, hoping to feel the baby kick. Thomas spent most of his time staring out the window, probably dreaming of holding Shay.
Nick still wasn’t thrilled with Henry, but they took shifts driving so Henry could feed his addiction. I spent a lot of my days crying over it when he wasn’t looking. I just had to keep reminding myself that he was sick.
I hated bearing witness to it, but there was no way he could detox on the road. He needed to have a place to rest and relax before he could even think about it. There were a few times he came dangerously close to running out of booze. He was near full blown panic mode during those times, but we found a few liquor stores and bars that were untouched.
Also, there were several times that we were almost overrun by a massive herd or two. A few times, we all fought with fury, even Claire, against everyone’s wishes…but we didn’t have a choice.
Henry and I had yet another major blow out on the road when he was seriously low on booze. I really thought it was going to be the end of our relationship. It was the worst one yet. He was tweaking out, knowing he was close to the end of his supply. His hand shook, holding the last partial bottle in his hand.