{Karlton Bontrager}

Because he’d stayed up until almost midnight on Friday night, we expected Karlton to have slept in on Saturday. Not so! When Mom and I went to pick him up for the trip to the airport, he said he’d awoken at the usual time. I drove the three of us to the airport, reminding Karlton that I might need his help finding my way back to ISIS from there (I’m horrible with directions!). He assured me that he could help me out.

Once we arrived and Mom went to check in, we saw Helen, the reflexologist who was dropping her daughter off for a flight. It was nice that Mom was able to say goodbye to her just before taking off for the States again.

After we said our goodbyes to Mom, Karlton and I drove back toward ISIS. At one point, I wasn’t sure about a turn I was to make, and asked Karlton which way to go. He informed me that he had no idea where we were and that he could help me only within Dunedin city center. Some help he was! Despite this, I was able to find the way back to ISIS with no further trouble.

Because of the excitement of the day before, we decided to stay around the ward for the rest of the day. In the evening, Helen stopped by with her son Paul. Paul and Karlton made plans to go to a movie on Sunday.

Because the weekends are less structured in the ward than are the weekedays, and Karlton gets bored if he isn’t kept busy enough, I went in to see him earlier than during the week. It started out a rainy and cold day, so we didn’t make any plans to go outside. Also, Karlton complained that he hadn’t been able to sleep beyond about 6am, and he was looking a bit tired.

We got to talk to Mom a little, who had landed in Los Angeles and was spending some time with Jennifer and Alec. Before we knew it, it was time to go to the movie. Paul called to say that it’d be about dinner time by the time the movie would be over; did we want to grab dinner too? This idea, of course, was much to Karlton’s liking.

After the movie ended, I joined Karlton, Paul, and friend Jamie for dinner at a Thai place. We ended up with quite a lot of food, which Karlton ate with much gusto. One dish was a little too spicy for him, but with the rest of the food, he lived up to his reputation in the family as a bottomless pit. It was good to see him enjoying his food after picking at the hospital meals before that. When we returned to the ward, I checked to see what he would have eaten here. It turned out to be nut balls, something that Karlton does not enjoy in the least. So he was happy not only that he was able to eat out, but also that it was timed so that he missed something he really did’t care for.

As he was getting ready for bed, I noticed that Karlton looked especially tired. His right eye wasn’t very wide open, and he kept yawning. For the first time before me, he admitted that he was feeling tired. He enjoyed the company during his outing (thanks Paul and Jamie!), even if xXx didn’t make his list of favorite movies.