Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 11 - In Sickness Not in Health

I wake up with a headache, as usual. Nothing too bizarre happened in my dreams last night, besides the normal plagues and terrors. I groan and, roll over to look at Cale. He was sitting up in bed with a strange expression on his face.

"Is everything okay?" I ask, propping myself onto one elbow.

"Yeah, I just feel a little -" Cale stopped clutching his stomach with wide eyes. "I have to go to the bathroom!" He dashed towards the bathroom, nearly forgetting to close the door. I feel like there's something significant that I'm forgetting.

A groan sounds behind the bathroom door. I jump up and knock on it. "Cale?" I call out. "Cale, what's wrong?" A lot of things, I'm assuming, the sounds in there are disturbing.

Cale moans again, and then I hear the sound of someone retching on to a tile floor.

"Cale!" I call out, my mind began to spin. No, not now, of all times... "Cale!" Despite my efforts, I started flashing back.

I was about 7 or 6 and sitting on a toilet.

"Mommy!" I wailed. "My tummy hurts!" It did, a lot. And even as I was sitting on the toilet it still hurt. "Mommy!" I cry again. Tears streaming down my little 7/6-year-old face.

"One minute sweetie, I'm on the phone!" My mom says back. I cry harder as the pain grew worse. To make it even better, I was actually going to the bathroom. "Bring her to the office, I could but she's on the toilet right now ... Salmonella?! ... She wouldn't have had anything to give her that ... I took her out to lunch today ... a chicken sandwich ... it looked cooked ... oh no that could be it i'll check her temperature ... yes, I'll call."

"MOMMY!" I shrieked, still sobbing recklessly.

"It's okay, it's okay," My mom came in front of me. "You might have eaten some bad chicken, but everything is gonna be fine, so don't worry."

"But it HURTS!" I reply.

"Shh, it's okay, you're going to be fine," My mom replies. The flashback fades out.

"Jade," Cale calls weakly from inside the bathroom. "Jade are you there?!"

"I'm here, what's going on?" I say.

"I don't know, my stomach is killing me, and I feel really nauseous," Cale explains, with another groan. "And I threw up on the floor a few times." Salmonella, is the first thing that pops into my head.

"Cale, did you eat the sausage yesterday?" I ask. I hear him puke again.

"Yeah, why?" He forces out.

"I think you have Salmonella," I say. At this, Cale moans again, though I'm not sure if it's from pain or from realizing he's sick.

"How bad is that?" He asks, he sounds weaker than he did before.

"Not bad, it should run it's course in a few days," I tell him.

"A few days!" He cries, then I hear him barf, a lot. For a few seconds it's quiet.

Then, "Jade," Cale barely whispers. "Do you have a mop?"