Freedive

Chapter 6

Belly

Conrad slept with his head in my lap the entire drive back to Cousins. I'd never seen him so lost, so helpless. The quiet, I was expecting, but the blank look on his face, the way he wasn't answering us, was hard to accept. Susannah was usually a stickler about seatbelts, but she didn't say anything when Con pulled the long belt behind him and lay in a ball in the back seat next to me. I'd patted my thigh, and Con had looked up, looking so small, asking me with his glassy blue eyes if I was sure. I nodded, and I swear I heard him sigh in relief when he finally got comfortable. I played with his hair until he was asleep, the whistle in his breathing loud but even. In the rearview mirror, I could see Susannah's eyes welling up, her hand swiping away quiet tears much of the ride home.

He parked himself belly-down on the good couch for the next two days, his face smushed against the cushions, barely moving except to grab food and use the bathroom. I sat across on the cruddy couch, my knees pulled up under me, reading one of the romance novels from my room. I was almost finished and thinking about which one I'd read next. It was Shark Week, so we kept the Discovery Channel on nonstop, but I don't think either of us was really watching.

"You need to get up, Connie," Susannah said softly around lunch on day three, shifting his legs over so that she could sit. The last thing you want is pneumonia from being stationary." She rubbed his back over his red sweatshirt.

"I've been trying to sleep, but I can't," he mumbled miserably into the cushion.

"That's the steroids. Once they kick in, you'll have so much energy you won't know what to do with it."

"Doubtful."

I'd never really seen Conrad sick before, and it was honestly pitiful. I knew he wasn't feeling fantastic, so I wasn't mad or anything, but my attempts to drag him off the couch had been futile. It was Susannah's turn to try now.

"I can make you something to eat, anything you want."

He exhaled, a puff of hair rising from his forehead. "I already ate three bowls of Captain Crunch and Belly made me mac and cheese."

"You did your morning treatment?"

"Yeah, Belly helped me set it up."

Susannah thought for a second. "Why don't you guys play that game? The one with the cards you all used to love so much?"

"You banned it, citing violence," Con reminded her.

"You're right, I did," she said, nodding.

"You could go for a swim. The weather's beautiful." She looked over at me, and I could tell she was worried about Con by the way her eyebrows were knitted. He could be grumpy, sure, but this was different. This was depression with a heaping side of self-pity, and Susannah wasn't having any of it.

"Feel like crap." He coughed.

"Because you haven't moved, honey," she said, exasperated. She must've realized her tone and quietly added, "Everything's settling in your lungs, making it worse. I promise the steroids will start to work and you'll be back up and running soon."

"Running is the last thing I want to do right now." He coughed again, and again, Susannah helping him to sit up.

She squeezed his arm. "I don't care what you do, Con, but please, at least take a shower and get out of the house for a bit? Take Belly for ice cream or something?"

"I could drive," I piped up.

Conrad looked over at me, unsure. I had my license, but Steven had convinced everyone that I was a crazy driver, joking that I took corners with only two wheels.