Monument 13

Fever

"Lily."
I sit up abruptly in my hammock and look around. He's kneeling in my room again. I lay my head against my pillow before I can yell at him. I know it's something important.
    "What, Otis?"
    "Henry. With everything that happened yesterday you didn't get him the medicine. I don't think it's allergies or hay fever. Lily, you have to come."
I jump out of bed and pull on my socks, following Otis to the little boys' room. Stephen and Benjamin sleep, huddled in a corner, away from Henry. I kneel next to Henry and feel his forehead.
    "He's burning up. Otis, get me a thermometer."
I shake Henry a little, and when he doesn't wake up I slide my arm underneath his neck and sit him up. He opens his eyes a little bit, looks at me with bloodshot, half-opened eyes, mumbles something under his breath, and closes his eyes again.
    "Henry, stay awake, we're going to get you medicine, okay? Don't fall asleep, Hen, common."
Otis rushes into the room with a plastic thermometer.
    "Open up Henry," I whisper, not wanting to wake Stephen and Benjamin. He opens his mouth only so slightly, and I have just enough room to slide the thermometer underneath his tongue. When it beeps, I pull it out and look at the screen. Otis kneels next to me and looks over my shoulder.
    "Crap."
I look at the screen again, I have to be mistaken. But no, my eyes are not deceiving me. The screen reads 107.
    I carry Henry to the living room, laying him down on the couch. He begins to cough, coughing his lungs out, his little body hunched over. When he looks up, there is blood on his lips. I look at Otis. Otis's eyes widen and he runs off into the store saying,
    "Follow me. I'm getting medecine. Give him an ice bath and try to get his fever down. I'll be right there."
I fill the empty kiddy pool with water and dump two bags of ice into it. I carry Henry over when the water cools down, and place him in the pool, clothes and all. He starts to whimper when he touches the ice, and tears stream down his face, I think he might have screamed if he could, but he didn't have enough energy. Otis shows up and kneels next to me, holding medicine and a bottle of water.
    "I don't know what to do about the blood," he whispers, "but the bath and medicine should get his fever down."
He looks at me with wide, sad eyes. Henry clenches his jaw as another coughing fit erupts from his little body. When he's finished, I carefully pick him up, dry him off, and change him into clean clothes and a fresh pull-ups. I pull a blow-up mattress from the home improvement section and blow it up, placing it in an unused corner of the Train and closing a shower curtain around the little block of space to make a small room. Otis lays Henry down on the mattress and we wrap him in blankets. I check his temperature, but nothing has changed yet. After another coughing fit, I feed him water and wash the blood out of his mouth, and he leans against his pillow. I back up and sit against the wall next to Otis. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see him bite his cheek, his lip quivering. I lean my head on his shoulder, and feel a single tear slide down my cheek as I watch Henry in his sleep. We're doing everything we can, but I know it's not enough.

A/N

This chapter is kind of short, so I apologize. It's also a pretty sad chapter, and the next chapter does get sadder. -(is sadder a word?)
If you don't like child deaths or sickness or blood, then I advise you not to read this book, even though it is kind of crap and not really graphic or gruesome.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this part. :)