“Let him be, Scott. We were out of line there. He needs us to be his rock and we were anything but.”
An uncomfortable silence settles in the room.
“Perhaps we all should keep our worries to ourselves and build a positive atmosphere around him,” I say softly.
“And who made you his best friend?” Scott demands.
“I didn’t have much choice since he has no other,” I snap back. For once Scott doesn't come back with a sharper reply.
“I'm sorry. This thing has me on the edge,” he says.
“We’re all on the edge, Scott, but we aren’t going around attacking everyone around us. Besides, he just fired you so why don’t you go home now.” Shauna gives him a stern look, and Scott just sinks further in his chair.
“You guys think I'm only in it for the money, and that I don’t care about David. That’s not true.” He looks straight at me. ”He’s one of the very few clients that I do care about. He’s not what the media portrays him to be, and that pains me. I'm always looking out for him and it frustrates me that he is hell bent on self sabotage.”
Shauna nods along.
“Which is why we have to be there for him. I haven’t known David for long, but apart from you guys and Willie, he has no one to count on in this country. Can you imagine how lonely it must feel?” I stand up. “I mean even if he’s fired you, you can still be there as a friend for him.”
Scott just smiles.
“If I had a penny for every time he has fired me…”
“Like that time we were all in Mexico,” Shauna chuckles.
“And that time at Disneyland. Who fires their manager at the happiest place on earth?” Scott says, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “He’s a loyal guy. That’s what I love about him.”
“Me too,” Shauna says, her eyes staring at the ceiling as if she was reminiscing.
“Now that you guys have come back to your senses, how about we go find him?” I propose.
“Good idea,” Shauna gets up. “Scott, you wait here to see if he comes back, and me and Carrie will take a look around. Carrie, you go left—I’ll go right,”
I search around the hallway, even looking around staircases to see if David is sitting anywhere by himself. I feel worse for him every moment and my own problems are seeming teeny tiny compared to the troubles he has right now. It becomes obvious to me how deeply I care for him. I want him to be healthy and happy. I can also sense how alone he must feel, in a foreign country, without any of his friends or family to care for him.
Finally I find him in the kids’ section of the hospital. Through the glass, I see him talking to a kid who’s wearing a bandana on his head. The child is smiling as David plays around with his toys, apparently making up a story. It takes a moment for me to recall that this boy was among the group of kids who visited David at the practice the other day. He’d looked feeble even then, hidden under a big baseball hat, but I’m devastated now to realize that this child was likely really sick.
He seems to be having a great time as David entertains him. That puts a smile on my face.
“I thought he’d be here,” Shauna’s voice distracts me.
“I saw this boy at the training the other day.”
“Yep. David met Joel a few months ago at a game. The club, you know, they do this kind of thing for kids who are not well. They give them free tickets and organize a meet and greet,” she explains. “This kid really impressed David with his soccer knowledge and once he discovered that this poor child was suffering from leukemia, he decided to pay for his treatment.”
“Really?” My eyes grow wide. Though I knew that David was a kind person, I wasn’t expecting him to be this generous.
“Yep. It’s a pity, too, as this is a great story for the press but David refuses to leverage any PR out of it.” Shauna shakes her head. “He doesn’t want to destroy this kid’s privacy.”
“I think that’s very noble of him.” My admiration for David had just grown by leaps and bounds.
He’s almost the polar opposite of Max.
“It’s my job as his PR rep to make sure that the rest of the world thinks of him as noble too, but he won’t let me,” Shauna sighs. “Anyways, let’s go on.” She moves toward the door to the room but I stop her.
“Maybe we should let him be in there for a while. Just look at how peaceful he looks taking care of that child. Let it have him a moment of peace for now?”
Shauna nods and both of us make our way back to David’s room.