Dark Night

First shot

I had eaten my lunch, taken my first bath since we got here, and was watching Stranger Things on my laptop when Grandpa came back. From the way he was beaming, I figured he had good news. And he did. The inspection had found a couple of problems that needed to be addressed, but nothing that would necessarily scuttle the deal, as he put it. The inspection had taken the better part of almost five hours and had involved a staggering amount of gadgets to do things like look for water in the walls; Grandpa felt that he'd gotten a highly detailed picture of the house's condition. I volunteered to help paint; some of the rooms had highly questionable color choices. We had celebratory pudding, then I went to take a little nap. The fever was still hanging in there; even though my sinuses were feeling better, my throat still hurt and Grandpa, taking a look with a penlight and the end of a spoon, said that my throat was still red and had white patches.

"Well, I think it's time to go old-school, as you kids say," he said, frowning a little. He spooned some table salt into a glass, added warm water, stirred to dissolve, and handed it to me. "Go gargle."

"Ew," I said.

"Go." So I went. And yeah, yuck.

"I think I just hit my sodium intake for the day," I said, coming out of the half bath and making a face.

"You're young, you can take it," Grandpa said callously. "Do you have throat lozenges?"

"I bought some on the way to school the other day," I said, and went to my backpack, but they weren't there. "I must have left them in my locker."

"Well, here's a peppermint," he said, handing it to me. "I'm going to pop to the store and get you some. Any favorite flavors?" I requested the Ricola lemon mint ones, and he nodded. "Go back and take it easy, punkin," he directed, and left. So I went back to my binge-watching. Steve was being a dick to Nancy, but he still had the best hair in the cast. The mystery of Will was engrossing.

Grandpa came back with the lozenges, some Otter Pops, and a carton of chai tea concentrate, so I could have a choice of hot or cold, depending on how my throat felt. "Tomorrow's Friday, so if your fever hasn't broken by then, you're going back to the doctor. You don't want this to hang around. But if you're feeling better, punkin, I'd like to go and make some calls, get the ball rolling on relocating here. I got a call when I was out from the realtor, that's why I was gone so long. The seller has agreed to have the electrical panel fixed and take a little off the price because the fridge is on death's door." He looked cheerful and I smiled.

"I think I can be by myself for a few hours without burning the place down," I said, and he ruffled my hair.

"Sometimes it doesn't seem possible that you're sixteen," he said. "Well, call if you need anything, and I expect you to gargle a couple more times today." I made a face and he laughed. I never would have pegged him as a sadist.

After he left, I went out and fixed myself a cup of chai. The fog had rolled in again and it was making things a little chilly. I checked messages and found a new pre-calc assignment. This one was harder since I hadn't heard the teacher lecture, but I thought it wasn't insurmountable. Around five, I was hungry and went out to the kitchen, chucking a bag of broccoli into the microwave and dishing a good-sized bowl of mac and cheese up, awaiting its turn in the microwave. I stirred a handful of the broccoli florets into the mac and cheese to disguise its taste and sat down at the table. I looked up, startled, as the door opened. Mom was home early.

"I didn't take any additional projects," she said in response to my surprised look as she hung up her coat. "Clammy out there. We're supposed to have cold, rain, and fog for the next four or five days, the weatherman says."

"So that's subject to outbreaks of reality," I said, and she laughed and went to the fridge after looking at my bowl.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.