Can you hear me?

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

-EAN-

Ean was eating breakfast greatly until he suddenly heard a loud, retching sound and it came from down the hall.

He quickly shoved the rest of his pancakes in his mouth and nearly vomited at the sight of what he saw in his sister's room.

His elder sister, Carina - Car - was on her bed, vomiting in a nearby trash can. But what made Ean's stomach lurch, was what Car was vomiting out.

The color of the vomit was blue with dots in it.

He looked at her, sweating, but she wore a sleeveless tee of some basketball team she was on.

Carina laid back down on her bed after wiping her mouth on the back of her hand.

He watched as Carina tried to open the window - that was to the right of her bed - but she just slumped after trying.

She was too weak, after vomiting so much. Ean strode over to his sister's bed. Leaned over and pulled it open, just in time to get a mouthful of fresh cigarette smell of the air.

He didn't mind it but quickly closed it after Carina had coughed a bit.

He helped Carina lay back down and then felt her forehead.

He swore at the heat, it was way too high.

He would have called his parents to help if they weren't too busy doing their own thing. It wasn't anything new. They were always drunk too but that was when it wasn't every other day. Otherwise, it was sleeping for his mom - fucking 24/7 and bingeing for his dad.

He didn't need their help.

He walked past his parent's room and into his grandma's room.

Brushing the entrance of beaded curtains aside, - that stood as an instead for a door - he found his grandma on her cushion, bean bag chair, sleeping with a book on her lap, glasses dangling from her neck.

"Mimi, Mimi, wake up." He shook her shoulders, gently.

Her eyes opened slowly, as she put on her rectangular framed glasses, she quietly asked,

"Yes, baba? Everything all right?" Baba was what his grandma called him, instead of Ean.

He shook his head. No.

"It's Carina, Mimi. She's vomiting and has a sweltering forehead. I think she needs a pain reliever because she keeps on wincing. What should we do?" Ean watched as his grandma nodded and then motioned him to follow her to his sister's room.

Mimi opened wider, the already ajar door to Carina's room and sat down on her bed. She put her hand on her head and swore a string of curses.

"Ai, Carina, my dear." She asked Carina if she needed anything.

"Just hot," Carina mumbled.

"Yes, dear, I know." She started to take off all the blankets that were on Carina and started folding them and had just finished placing them at the foot of the bed, when Ean asked, confused,

"Mimi, she's gonna be cold."

"No, she won't, baba. She said she was hot - and her body needs to cool down. She'll be okay." She insisted as Ean threw her a worried look.

"Get me two cold, wet towels to place on her neck and forehead," Mimi added.

Ean spinned once more then rumpled his har as he grabbed two white towels from the towel rack and walked back to Carina's room. He stopped right outside of Carina's room when he heard a wrinkle of paper. He looked down. He had just stepped on a piece of paper with his green slippers.

He picked it up and narrowed his eyes. What the heck is a newspaper doing on the floor. It read,

Planning for a funeral for you, for a loved one, or just someone? Call 800-929-9834. We know just how to plan a perfect funeral that will send your ancestor's graves jumpin. Your soul will be having a lifetime.

And the ad closed with,

Ho, ho, ho. Fu-ner-al.

His eyes scrunched together. This was some...weird, ass ad. A ho, ho, ho thing with a funeral? A funeral that will send your ancestor's graves jumpin? Bro, forget it.

He walked in as his grandma hurriedly took the towels from his hand and placed them on Carina's head and neck.

Then, Mimi got up from the bed, saying,

"She should be good for a while, call if you need anything, a'ight, baba?"

"Yes." She kissed his head and was two steps almost out of the room when she turned around, abruptly and pointed at the crumpled ad in Ean's left, fist.

"Where did you get that?"

"It was on the floor, is it yours, Mimi?" Mimi nodded. Then she held out her hand,

"Can I have it?"

Ean obliged but then stopped when he saw Mimi's hands shaking,

"Mimi?" he said slowly. Why was his grandma shaking? Shaking with what? Something was sus.

"Mimi?" He repeated. His grandma had been staring at him intently, contemplating on saying something, when she changed her mind and snapped,

"Just give it." Ean did not comply.

Mimi snatched it out of his grip, her strength surprisingly strong, and muttered, "Stubborn boy".

She was again, two steps away to the door when Ean called her back,

"Mimi, why were your hands shaking?"

Mimi pursed her lips. But she didn't say anything.

"What is that ad for?" He pelted her with questions, to only find his grandma still silent and after a moment of silence, she walked away, going into her room and then drawing her curtains shut. This time, her thick, wooden - sliding entrance door too.

With none of his questions answered, Ean paced in Carina's room. That was unusual. First, the ad, and the way Mimi reacted. He had never seen her like that. So, shaken up. As if, she was scared or about to do something unexpected.

No, that couldn't be. Ean shook his head, to clear his head, but they didn't go away as he left his room and walked into the kitchen. He was planning on grabbing a drink before he would head out to his usual, morning run.

But right in front of the refrigerator, was his parents making out.

"What the fuck guys?" He shouted. They turned to look at him. Gaped at the cuss word but did not look a bit embarrassed about their child, finding his parents making out in the freakin' kitchen.

He shook his head and left the kitchen, not caring about his energy drink anymore.

Today was definitely weird and fucked up.