Chapter
13
The
next three months passed quickly. They
were happy times for AJ, for although he and his girlfriend and daughter were
stricken with HIV, all three of them remained healthy.
In
mid March, it was time for AJ to get ready to get back to touring with the
guys. Normally, he loved touring and
couldn’t wait for the start of a new tour, but now he didn’t want to leave Tara
and Madison. He and Tara had gotten very
close over the past few months. AJ hadn’t
told her yet, but he thought he was in love with her. It was too soon to think about marriage, but
AJ thought that he wanted to propose to Tara sometime. It wasn’t just because he wanted Madison to
have a normal family, but also because he really did love Tara. She was a great friend to him, but she had
become more than that to him. Even
though they had only been dating for three months, he felt feelings for her
that he had never felt for Amanda or any other girl before. Maybe he had finally found true love.
Thinking
of leaving Tara was very hard, but thinking of leaving Madison was almost
harder. She was growing more and more
every day, and she was now getting close to being able to sit up by herself. He knew that she had many more milestones ahead,
and he hated thinking that he might miss them while he was on tour. He wanted Tara and Madison to be with him,
but he knew there was no way he could bring a baby on tour with him. Madison deserved better than riding around on
a tour bus all day, and he knew she would be a burden to the rest of the
guys. So, sadly, he realized Tara would
have to stay home with her while he was touring.
***
The
tour started in early April and went until the beginning of July. During that time, AJ called Tara everyday,
and she would always hold the phone up to Madison’s ear so she could hear her
daddy talking to her too. AJ loved
touring, but he did miss his family very much.
He knew he would be glad when it was over. Those three months were the longest ones of
his life, it seemed. But finally, the
last show came and went, and he could finally go home to the family he loved so
much.
***
In
December of that year, Madison turned one.
AJ and Tara threw a huge party for her, inviting all of their friends
and relatives over. AJ realized how
lucky they were, for it had been over a year since he and Tara had met, and
still, neither one of them had gotten sick.
They still had HIV, but they felt normal and were happy. And Madison was happy and healthy too. That was what mattered most to them. Their daughter had lived one year without any
complications from the horrible virus that they had passed on to her, and they
hoped there would be many years to come like that.
***
