The Mindless Man's Paradise

Chapter thirteen

“Time to wake up!” came a voice. Female. Most likely Aurora.

  I opened my eyes, and indeed, it was Aurora. She stood at the foot of the bed, smiling, genuinely happy.

  “What time is it?” I croaked.

  “Time to wake up!” she chimed.

  This made me smile, and I stretched my arms. But as soon as I even moved slightly, there was a singing pain that went up my leg. It was the injured one, but this pain didn’t feel like a broken bone. It felt more as if I was burning on the inside.

  I didn’t do anything to alert Aurora, and instead, swung my legs carefully over the bed. She handed me the crutches and I got up.

  “What are we doing?”

  “You’ll be getting the grand tour today!” she said jubilantly.

  I had already seen most of the house due to its small size, so it didn’t seem very necessary. But I followed Aurora out anyways.

  When I had left the room, I noticed the house was empty. “Where is everyone?”

  “Well, Cyrus is out back clearing snow from the fields and the chicken coops, and Kian and Jensen are out hunting again.” she listed.

  “Ah, okay.” was all I said.

  So I supposed it was just Aurora and I, then.

  She lead me into the kitchen where there was some cereal awaiting me along with some milk. Slowly, I sat down, making sure not to bang my shin on any of the table legs.

  “Hey, sweetie, can you prop your leg on this chair so I can look at it?” Aurora asked with a mother-like manor.

  I didn’t reply, but instead put my leg on the chair. I decided that since I was eating, I wouldn’t look at what she was doing.

  I felt that same pain once more as she unwrapped my gauze. She was too busy with that to notice the look on my face, which was lucky for the both of us.

  After a couple minutes of her inspection, she closed up the wound.

  I didn’t look at her, and she didn’t look at me. I just continued to eat my breakfast. It was silent for a while until I announced my completion.

  Then she handed me a coat, some boots, and of course; my crutches.

  She helped me outside, although it was not easy walking through the snow whilst limping and on crutches. It was a slow process, but eventually, she had lead me around back.

  “Here is where we grow our vegetables in the spring and summer time.” Before us stood a frosty patch where vegetation would usually grow. “Then over there is where we keep the chickens. We’ve got to keep them warm, so there’s a lot of heat lamps in there.”

   I looked over to the chicken coop, where I could see Cyrus walking with a chicken in his hand.

   When he saw me, he stopped, and waved. I waved back, but I found myself tipping over, and Aurora had to help me right myself.

  Once I was situated, I looked up to see that Cyrus had put down the chicken and was making his way over to us through the snow.

  “Hey! How’d you sleep?”

  “Good.” I responded.

  Then he directed his attention to his mother and said, “The chickens have all been tended to.”

  Aurora smiled approvingly and asked him to join us.

  We headed back to the cottage and entered through the front door. As soon as we were inside, I sat myself down on the couch. Despite the fact that the cottage had heat, and that I had a coat and boots on, I was still cold. My teeth chattered and my whole body was shivering.

  “Is it just me or is it cold in here?”

  Cyrus looked strangely at his mother while taking his coat off. “No, it’s nice and toasty.”

  He took a moment to watch me shiver and put a blanket over me that had been draped over the couch.

  “Is that better?” he asked.

  It was slightly better, but I was still cold. Not wanting to bother them, I nodded my head anyways.

  Aurora sat down next to me and put her hand on my forehead. “Are you sweating?”

  I hadn’t noticed, but since she had mentioned it, I’d become aware of salty droplets slowly making their way down my face.

  “I thought you said you were cold?” Cyrus asked while he sat himself down on the coffee table.

  “I am.” I said confusingly.

  Aurora smoothed down my hair affectionately and said, “I’ll make you some hot cocoa.”

  Whatever it was, it was hot, and that’s all I cared about.

  She got up and went into the kitchen where I heard her rummaging through the pantry. Evidently, looking for hot cocoa.

  Trying to help, Cyrus put my leg on the table under a small pillow, but this hurt more than anything I’d ever felt. Like knives cutting into my leg; like sandpaper rubbing me raw; like thousands of bee stings at once.

  I couldn’t hold in pain this time, I let it out very audibly. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, that hurts so bad.”

  Cyrus had positioned himself next to me where his mother had been not even moments before.

  “I’m not even touching it anymore.”

  I looked at my leg, to see that he was right, yet there was still that insanely excruciating agony there. Yet I wouldn’t let myself cry. Not even then.

  Cyrus went to his mom in the kitchen, and left me by myself, trying to think of anything other than my leg.