The Fall of the Aftons

118: Michael Afton

About a year passed. Michael was fourteen years old, turning fifteen in about a month. His sophomore year of school was almost over, Evan's third-grade year was coming to an end, and Elizabeth was going to start preschool that summer. But, at the moment, the summer felt like it would take ages to arrive. Michael had been stuck at home with his siblings and the Emily twins all week. His siblings had both come down with the flu. And because Miss Jen was out of state for a work trip, Henry had asked if Michael could take care of Charlie while he was at work. And Michael had no idea what happened to Missus Laura, so her caring for Charlie was out of the question.

Right now, Michael was struggling to make the children's dinner with a crying Elizabeth in his arms and trying to get Charlotte to stop shouting at Evan to change the channel.

"Mikey," Evan's raspy, wheezy voice called from the living room.

"I'm working on dinner right now, bud!" Michael shouted back, pressing one of Beth's ears into his chest and covering the other with his hand because she was sensitive to loud noises. "And Charlie, leave Evan alone! He's the one in charge of the telly right now. If you don't want to watch his cartoons with him, go upstairs and play in the playroom."

Finally, Charlie stopped shouting at poor Evan.

"Yay, now I only have one screaming child on my hands," he grumbled as he took his hand from Beth's head.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. With a heavy sigh, Michael turned off the stove and walked into the living room, going behind the couch to not block Evan and Charlie's views of the telly as he went to the door. He shifted Beth in his arms and opened the door.

Surprisingly, he was greeted by his friends' smiling faces. All of them were there: Analex, Estella, Lavender, TJ, and Noah. Though their smiles quickly fell when they saw Beth screaming in his arms.

He held up a finger to give him a minute, then closed the front door. He went over to Beth's crib close to the telly and pulled out her sippy cup of strawberry milk, handing the bottle to her. She immediately shut up and started drinking her flavored drink. She hated regular milk, but she was allergic to chocolate, so strawberry flavoring was a lifesaver when it came to keeping her hydrated because she refused to drink water. 

He took a deep breath before he returned to the door, then opened it back up. "Can I help you?" he asked his friends.

"You haven't been at school all week," Analex explained with a worried frown. "We came to make sure that you were okay."

"You look terrible," TJ pointed out.

"Gee, thanks," Michael grumbled as he rolled his eyes.

"TJ's right, you do look bad. Are you okay?" Estella asked sadly. "What happened?"

"My siblings both came down with the flu, and since our father is 'too tired'"--he finger-quoted--"to hire a willing babysitter, I'm the one who's been forced to watch over them. And Charlie, since I'm a sitter Mister Henry doesn't have to pay."

"What about school?!" Lavender exclaimed softly, her voice sad and worried. "Finals are coming up! You should be at school so you're prepared for them, not taking care of your sick siblings!"

He shrugged. "Oh, well. It's not up to me."

"Would you like some help?" Analex asked, peeking inside to see the chaos that randomly unfurled between Charlie and Evan, as well as the mess on the kitchen counters from Michael's attempt to cook with Beth on his hip. "You look like you can use it."

"I don't want you guys to get sick. I'm honestly surprised that I haven't gotten sick yet."

"You look like you haven't slept in days," Noah observed quietly.

"Because I haven't." He snort-chuckled, rubbing Beth's back when she started to cry again. "My siblings are sick and my dad is either 'too busy' or 'too tired' to take care of them. So that means I get to deal with all of the chaos. Beth goes from hot to cold in an instant because of recurring fever; she keeps puking, which means I have to clean up any messes that she makes; and because she's asthmatic, I have to make sure that she takes her preventive and rescue medications, as well as her peak flow so she's in range. Evan can barely speak because he has a bad cough from his flu, so I've been struggling to understand him every day; he's been refusing to go to bed because of his Nightmares and not being able to stop them; and he's been getting bad migraines, so I have to make sure he gets pain stuff as soon as he can have them again. Plus I've got a grumpy five-year-old girl on my hands. So I've been running on bitter coffee and nauseating energy drinks all week."

Analex and TJ shoved past Michael, everybody else quickly following suit. They stood next to Beth's crib, discussing something. But when Michael tried to join in, they pushed him aside. So he hovered nearby, listening in as best as he could.

"I'll help him with..."

"I dibs..."

"No, I want to..."

"What about..."

"He won't allow us to..."

"But what about..."

"This is not..."

"We should get..."

"Can you..."

"Yeah, that should..."

"Okay, I've had it!" Michael exclaimed. "What on Earth are you guys talking about?" he asked loudly as he closed the front door behind him. "You guys are acting nuts."

"We're discussing our plan to help you," Estella said happily, grinning.

"I'm going to take care of Evan," Lavender said. "I'm good with quiet kids."

"I'm taking Charlie," Estella told him. "I think I might have a good way to distract her from picking fights over the TV with Evan."

"I'll be with Elizabeth," Analex promised as she took the little girl from Michael's arms. "My mom and my little sisters all have asthma. I can make sure that little Lizzie doesn't have a flare-up while having some resting fun."

"I'm going to make dinner for you and the kids," TJ said calmly. "I'm good at cooking."

"And I," Noah said as he grabbed Michael's wrist, "am going to make sure you get some sleep. You clearly need it--it's painfully obvious. You're basically sleepwalking at this point."

Michael hesitated. "You guys are awesome. Are you doing this because you want to?"

"If we didn't want to help, we'd probably be gone already since we found out that you're okay," Estella joked, laughter filling her voice. "Yes, you dumbass! We're here to help--willingly."

Tears filled Michael's eyes and he quickly wiped them away. "Thank you so much. I appreciate it more than you can imagine.