“Uh-oh. What kind of not good?”
“My throat hurts.” She sounded a little raspy and nasal.
“Yeah? That sucks. Is it like when your allergies are bad or how it was last year on the day before your field trip?”
“Field trip.”
God, she sounded miserable.
I climbed off the bed and made my way to the door.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Char’s not feeling good. I’m gonna grab the thermometer.”
“Hey, kiddo,” I said. We didn’t need a thermometer to know she had a fever. Her face was flushed, and sweat was clinging to her forehead. “Want me to see if there are any ice pops in the freezer?”
She gave me a sad nod as Christopher came out of the bathroom with her temporal thermometer.
“How bad?” I asked after I heard it beep.
“Time for some medicine. But not a hospital trip. Unless the meds don’t cut it.”
Charlotte let out a little whimper and took a bite of the ice pop I handed to her.
“You feeling achy?” I asked.
“My legs hurt.”
I glanced over at Christopher, wincing.
“Flu?” I said.
“Starting to sound like it,” he agreed. “Want to curl up on the couch and watch a movie until the meds kick in?” he asked.
“Will you sit with me?”
“Yeah, of course,” Christopher said.
“You too?” she asked, looking at me.
“Only if we pick something fun.”
She was up for the challenge.
So after taking her medicine and grabbing her blanket and her stuffed animal from her bed, she climbed onto the center of the couch to click through the options as we moved to flank her.
“Any better?” I whispered as Christopher reached out to press his hand to Charlotte’s clammy forehead after she dozed off from the meds.
“A little cooler, yeah.”
“She sounded stuffier by the moment.”
“Yeah. Looks like there’s a doctor visit ahead of us tomorrow.”
“If she makes me sick, I better be getting some of the homemade soup you promised her.”
“I have a feeling this thing is going to rip through all of us.”
