Page 120 of Love Overdose: St. Louis

“It was a lot.”

“I noticed.”

I pinched his side, and he laughed quietly.

16

frankie

8:12 A.M.

Friday

Malik pushed his cereal away slowly without taking a bite.

“You don’t want it?”

He looked at me like he was in a daze but didn’t smile. The animated Superman movie played on the television behind me—one of his favorites. Normally, the opening music was enough to bring his hands to the armrests of his chair. That morning, his gaze drifted past the screen.

I touched his forehead. His skin felt normal.

“You don’t have a fever.”

He turned his face away from my hand, and I crouched beside his chair and studied him. His eyes were clear. His breathing was steady. He had slept through the night without waking me, and nothing about his morning routine had changed until I placed breakfast in front of him.

“You feeling bad?”

His eyes met mine.

“Does your head hurt?”

He didn’t respond.

“Your stomach?”

Nothing. I didn’t know what I was expecting. A sign of some sort to tell me I was on the right track. That was my biggest worry when it came to him. Because he was nonverbal, I had to use a process of elimination to figure out what was wrong with him. And that didn’t always work. I took his hand and placed it against his communication board. He stared at the pictures without choosing one.

Fear settled inside me.

Malik had quiet days. Some mornings, it took him longer to wake fully. He could lose interest in a meal because the texture bothered him or because he had decided he wanted something else but couldn’t tell me what. I replaced the cereal with yogurt. He ate three spoonfuls, then closed his mouth and turned his head. It was more than he had eaten from the bowl, but not enough to settle me. I checked the skin over the path of his shunt. No swelling or redness. He didn’t flinch when my fingers moved behind his ear and down his neck, but his eyes followed me when I crossed the kitchen.

Okay. He was still attentive. I gave him his morning medication, wrote down the time, and called Dr. Hawkins’s office. The nurse listened while I described the changes.

“No vomiting?” she asked.

“No.”

“Fever?”

“His temperature is normal.”

“Is he difficult to wake?”

“He woke up at his regular time. He’s quieter than usual and doesn’t want to eat.”

She asked about his eyes, whether he appeared to be in pain and whether I had noticed swelling near the shunt. I answered each question while watching Malik.

“We can schedule him for Monday morning,” she said. “Continue observing him. If he vomits, becomes unusually sleepy, stops responding normally, or you notice changes in his eyes, take him to the emergency room.”