The Moon's Boy

Chapter Ten

The car ride home was silent apart from Kadir's soft breathing and the gentle voice of the news broadcaster. The moment Madison pulled into the driveway, she roused him with a featherlight touch on his arm. His heavy eyes fluttered open and he murmured a few words under his breath. "Come on," she breathed, helping him out of the car.

She set him on the couch and pulled a basket from the cupboard under the stairs. The auburn-haired woman returned to find him curled in one corner like the cat she could've sworn he was. Dusting off a worn blue weighted blanket, she draped it over his long limbs and sat next to her eldest son. She curled an arm around him and laid his head in her lap, tenderly stroking his hair.

"What about work?" he whispered, his voice cloudy with drowsiness.

"I took the rest of the day off," she replied. The look he gave her oozed unbridled surprise. "It's been like three days since I spent some time with you. I think some hours away from the hospital won't kill me."

He snuggled into her and drank in her familiar warmth. Before he knew it, he drifted into unconsciousness and floated in the void like a leaf on a lake's surface.

Once he returned to the realm of the living, a hot water bottle warmed his stomach and a stack of books had materialised on the coffee table. Kadir sat up slowly as his thoughts returned to him. The lap he fell asleep on was gone. She'd left after all.

He stood, discarding the blanket onto the couch and stumbled into the kitchen. There his mother stood, muttering away in front of his kettle. She looked over her shoulder at her son and smiled. "Ah, you're awake." She turned her attention back to the device on the counter. "I can't seem to remember how to work this thing." She pressed a few buttons aimlessly and laughed, embarrassed. "I know I'm supposed to use almost boiling water for chamomile, you told me that, but I can't remember how to get the temperature right..."

The boy's lips curved into a semblance of a smile and he gently moved his mother aside. "Here, I'll handle it." The small woman shuffled backwards, hands folded in front of her.

"You've gotten taller since I saw you."

"I don't feel any taller," he murmured, putting the kettle on with ease.

"At your grand old height, I'm not surprised you don't notice increases any more."

"I'm only 180 cm..."

"He says that like it's tiny... I'm 165!" Quickly, he swallowed his laughter and walked with her back to the sofa. He laid his head in her lap again and she drew him into her.

"So, my lovely, how've you been?" She twirled a dark lock around her finger. "Tell me about what you've been up to." He recapped his week to her, skirting on any details about Jonathan.

"Well, I met someone a few days ago," he said, tucking his hair behind his ear before she had a chance to. "She was really kind to me although I have no idea why. She had no reason to."

"Are we talking about the girl who slept over here last night?"

He blinked rapidly as his ears burned. "You're so adorable, Kadir," she purred. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

"Well, I wasn't intentionally hiding it from you but how did you find out? She didn't leave anything here, did she?"

"No, no. Nothing like that. Oscar texted me after he met her." She grinned. "He was so excited that his older brother had finally found a girlfriend."

Kadir pulled the weighted blanket up to his neck. "She's not my girlfriend."

"Whatever you say."