A Family Podcast (english)

Chapter 38

Taylor

"Get up!" I shook Coulder's shoulder before going to the other end of the room and pulling up the blinds.

My little brother mumbled something unintelligible and pulled the blanket over his head.

With a sigh, I surveyed the mound on the ceiling.

For the past three weeks, Coulder had been having constant nightmares. The car accident had affected all of us, but we were slowly getting back into our daily routine. Only Coulder still woke up almost every night, and I was running out of ideas of what to do about it. He hadn't come to me tonight, but that didn't mean anything. Jackson teased him about it all the time, so Coulder didn't like admitting when he had slept poorly.

"Come on, you're going to be late," I said, shaking his shoulder again.

"Stop it," Coulder whined, hiding his head under the pillow.

With a sigh, I sat down on the edge of the bed. "If you hurry up, you can still have some chocolate drops," I tried to entice him with his favorite cereal, but my brother shook his head.

So, he really had a bad night's sleep. If Coulder was giving up his chocolate drops, something was definitely wrong. I glanced at the clock.

"Sorry, but you still have to get up," I said, swiftly removing the pillow and putting my brother in a sitting position.

"Taylor!" he complained, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

"Everything okay?" I asked because the little one looked really exhausted, and I brushed the tousled hair away from his face. It was time for us to go to the hairdresser's.

Coulder just looked to the side and nodded. Clearly, it was a definite no, not everything was okay.

"Why didn't you come to me if it was so bad?" I asked. Like all my siblings and probably all other little kids in the world, Coulder usually felt better just by not being alone.

"It wasn't that bad," Coulder muttered before getting up and putting on a shirt that was lying on the floor.

"That's why you look like Toadwart from the Gummi Bears," I replied dryly. I definitely watched too many children's shows if that was my best comparison.

My brother didn't say anything, so I stood up and threw him a pair of pants that were next to the bed.

"Hurry up, I'll make you breakfast." If he didn't want to talk about it, I would leave him alone. For now.

Coulder grunted in agreement, and I left the room shaking my head, only to bump into Liam.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, startled, and jumped to the side.

Unlike Coulder, Liam was already dressed for school. A glance to the side showed me that Aden was also dressed and ready. When he noticed my gaze, he grinned innocently, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

"We talked about this," I said sternly.

"But—"

"You're not going to school today." I may have been exaggerating a bit, but just three weeks ago, he had been in the hospital with a brain hemorrhage, and I wanted to keep an eye on the boy as long as I could.

The doctor had said Aden was on the road to recovery, but he should take it easy. And since the two of them were often pushed around at school, he would sit out the time at home where it was safe.

"But I've already missed so much, and I'm feeling better now," Aden pleaded, casting a quick glance at Liam. I knew he mostly wanted to go back for Liam's sake. He didn't like the idea of leaving Liam alone at school.