Story Time

by Haley Kleine

“Will you come check on David, honey? He doesn’t look too good and I’m late for work.”

Beth rinsed off her toothbrush and followed the sound of her husband’s voice to the bedroom at the end of the hall. She received a kiss directly on top of her dimple, the one that appeared on her right cheek every time she saw Tim. As he left the room Tim called back, “Thanks, babe. Feel better, little guy!”

The sound of David’s cough brought Beth back from the daydream she had fallen into, watching her husband walk out the front door. She found a thermometer in the medicine cabinet and placed it under David’s tongue. 93.6°. 95.4°. Beth’s foot jiggled up and down as her eyes took in the empty green room surrounding her. 96.8°. 99.3°. Only one picture interrupted the smooth, empty walls. 100.1°. Beth knew that picture. 100.6°. Tim had taken David camping last summer. They’d gone swimming in the lake and emerged completely covered in mud. 101.4°. Even as the thermometer beeped and David removed it from his mouth, Beth continued to examine the photograph. Despite the mud concealing every inch of skin on both of them, she still saw the similarities in their faces. And no amount of mud could hide their eyes. Beth had never understood how two people could share the same sparkling blue eyes without sharing any DNA. She did understand how that same coincidence didn’t apply to her. She and David looked nothing alike, but Beth had expected that when she and Tim had decided to adopt.

“Mommy, is that bad?” David handed his mother the thermometer, watching her face to see if he would be alright.

“It’s not too bad, but I’m going to need you to stay home from school today, ok?

David sniffled.

“Well, I think your second grade class is really going to miss you, but I want you to stay home.”

“Ok, mommy. Can we watch Hercules?”

“Of course you can watch Hercules. I don’t think there’s any medicine for you so I’m going to run to the store. But I’ll be right back.” Beth carried David, swaddled in all his blankets, into her bedroom where the flat screen TV was set up. Once the DVD was in and the big Disney castle had appeared on the screen, Beth knelt by the side of the bed. “I have to go, but call me if you need anything.”

“Mommy, can I have some tissues?”

“Oh, right. Uh, of course. There’s a box right over here.” Beth found the tissues and handed them to David. “There you go. Now I’m leaving. Feel better, I’ll be fast.”

Placing her key in the ignition of her minivan, Beth exhaled the breath she’d been holding in upon entering David’s room. Before she backed out of the driveway, she rested her forehead on the steering wheel, taking a deep breath. What am I doing? I have no idea what I’m doing.

The Safeway had changed since the last time Beth had been there. Tim usually did the grocery shopping, occasionally taking David, but only when Saturday morning cartoons weren’t on. Eventually she found herself in aisle seven, staring at the various brands of children’s medicine. She read the different symptoms each one treated. David had coughed, right? Was that actually one of his symptoms or had he just coughed like little kids cough all the time? How had I forgotten to ask him what was wrong? What kind of mother doesn’t ask their son what’s wrong?

The phone rang twice until it was answered by a series of coughs. Beth made a mental note of his first symptom. “Hey, it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“Hi, mommy. I feel yucky.”

“Can you tell me what’s wrong? Is your nose runny? Does your tummy hurt? I heard you cough; does your throat hurt?”

“My nose is really runny and my throat is all scratchy.”

“Ok, I’m still at the store, but I’ll be back really soon. Bye, David.”

“Bye, mommy.”

Finally Beth found the right medicine. David needs medicine he can drink, she remembered. He can’t swallow pills. And he likes grape medicine. At least I know that about my son.

* * *

With the background sound of the heroics of the son of Zeus playing in the other room, Beth called Tim at work. Tim would have asked David what his symptoms were.

“Hey, hon, how’s David doing?”

“He’s ok. He’s got a fever, but I’ve got him watching a movie so as far as I know, he’s happy. We didn’t have any medicine for him, but I ran to the store and I think it’s helping.”

“Did you leave him alone?”

Beth hesitated. “I…yeah I did. Why?”

“You said he has a fever?”

“Yeah, 100° or something like that. He was fine though.”

“I’m sure he was, but, sweetheart, even when David is feeling great we don’t usually leave him home alone.”

“Right, I know. But you were gone, what was I supposed to do?”

“Well if it were me, I probably would’ve called Susan, next door. We’ve watched her sons plenty of times. Don’t worry too much about it, but next time, call Susan, ok?”

“Ok, I will. I’m sorry. I love you.”

“Love you too, babe.”

* * *

“Mommy! Hercules just cut off the dragon’s head and then it was so gross and then it grew like a million more heads and Hercules just kept cutting them all off and they kept coming back! It was so cool!”

“Sounds like someone’s feeling better.” Beth finished an email, took a sip of water, and walked into her bedroom. David had one foot sticking out of the blankets, both arms exposed, and several layers of bedding thrown onto the floor. “Are you too hot? I’m going to take your temperature again, ok?” Beth swept the thermometer into David’s mouth. This time the numbers didn’t climb quite as high and the thermometer beeped once it reached 99.2º.

Beth showed David the digital screen as David frantically reached around for a tissue as mucus began to slide out of his nose. Beth beat him to it, wiping up the mess before he could say anything. “Thanks, mommy. So, wanna watch Hercules?”

“Sure sweetie. I’ll watch with you. Are you going to tell me what I missed?”

“So Hercules is Zeus’ son, but the bad guys made Hercules leave the clouds and go down to normal people. And one time Hercules saw a tree and he thought since he was so big and strong that he could climb it. But he tried his hardest and every time he came near it, his feet started hurting so bad and he couldn’t get any closer and he didn’t know what to do because he really wanted to climb the tree. So he looked at the other trees around him, but there weren’t any! And then he saw the horse that can fly and it used to be just a baby horse, but now it’s a big strong horse, like Hercules. They’re best friends. He said to the horsey, ‘Let’s go! We have to fly so I can climb the tree!’ The horse said, ‘Yes,’ and they flew really high above the tree and then the horse dropped him and he fell for so long until he went smack right in the tree. And he was hurting so bad, but when he looked around, he was in the tree! And his feet weren’t hurting.”

“I don’t think I remember that part of the movie.” Beth looked at David until he smooshed his face into a pillow to absorb all the giggles she could hear coming out of him.

“I made it up.”

“You made it up?”

“Yeah, I make stories up all the time.”

“You do? You mean at school?”

“Well, sometimes, but I just like to make up stuff in my head.”

How did I not know this? “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“Um…I don’t know. You and daddy always tell me my bedtime stories, like the one about the rabbit. That one’s my favorite.”

“The story about the rabbit that I told you?” David nodded. “That one’s your favorite?” He nodded again. The rabbit story’s his favorite. I told him that story. “Well, uh, cutie pie, how about tonight, before bedtime, you can make up your very own rabbit story. And you can tell it to me. Does that sound good?”

“Yeah! Can we watch Hercules now, please?”

“Yes, we can watch Hercules.”

* * *

Tim opened the front door slowly, hoping he wouldn’t wake David. He stepped lightly through the house, turning off the lights in each room he passed through. The sound of David’s laughter echoed through the halls.

“Beth?” Tim tried to follow the sound of the voices.

“Yeah, honey. We’re in David’s room.”

Tim stood in the doorway. Beth looked up and returned the smile she found on her husband’s lips. “Go on, David. The bunny was trying to get the carrot out of the ground, right?”

“Mommy, it’s a rabbit. The rabbit saw the prettiest carrot it had ever seen and it really wanted to eat it ‘cause it was so orange and rabbits love carrots. But the farmer was really mean and every day he ran around and scared the rabbit so then he would run away too. One day, the rabbit went to the farm and when the farmer wasn’t watching him, he scared away all the birdies that wanted the carrots too. And then the farmer was watching! And-” David yawned. “He saw the rabbit scaring the birds so he said, ‘Rabbit, thank you for scaring the birds away. Do you want the big, orange carrot?’ The rabbit really wanted the carrot so he said yes.” His eyes began to slide shut. “And then the rabbit came back all the time to make the birds go away. And the farmer gave him really yummy carrots.” David yawned out the last words, coughed, closed his eyes, and breathed steadily, rather loudly, through his mouth once he was asleep.

Tim reached out his hand to help Beth off the small bed and to her feet. “What was that about?”

“Did you know that David likes telling stories?”

“I…no, I didn’t. That’s great. How’d it go today? He looks like he’s feeling better.”

“He’s doing much better. I guess it was one of those 24-hour flues. But we had fun.”

Beth sat delicately on the edge of David’s bed. “Good morning, David. How are you feeling?”

David’s nose scrunched up as he opened his eyes. “Good morning, mommy.”

Once again, Beth found the thermometer and put it in David’s mouth. She gently brushed his hair back, feeling his forehead with her forearm. “You don’t feel warm, but we’ll see what it says.” The thermometer beeped, and Beth lifted it out from under David’s tongue. “Well, look at that!”

“98.9º.”

“That’s what it says…little buddy. Does your throat still hurt?”

“Nope.”

“Nose still runny?”

David sniffed. “Nope.”

“Well then I think you’re all better. Are you ready to go back to school?”

“Maybe. Can I stay home with you again today?”

“Well, you still have a tiny fever…and we don’t want you to get all your friends sick. So, yeah, I think you can stay with me.

“Really?”

“Yeah. We could watch Mulan. And maybe you can tell me some more stories. Does that sound good to you, mister?”

“Yes, mommy. Can I tell you the story about the dragon?”

“Of course you can, sweetie. Does the dragon have a name?” Beth listened to David’s voice rise and fall with the action of the story. The rabbit story’s his favorite. That’s my son’s favorite story.

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