Chapter Seventeen
It was in his nature
To control
~~~
“Hey Mum?”
“Yes honey?”
“Can you make Dad’s tea for me?”
I was laying on the couch with a thick, large blanket drooped snugly around my body, and the tv was playing a movie in low volume, my head leaning back against the couch and a box of tissues sitting next to me. It had snowed more over the past week, and I wasn’t even able to enjoy it because I was being cooped up indoors from having a harsh, sudden cold. I probably got it from being outside, which was ironically when Harry told me I’d get sick if I bundled up even more.
However, when I was a child and when I had my allergies striking up or a cold, my dad would always make this tea for me—I never knew what was in it, but it was my favorite tea in the whole wide world; it was sweet and warm; it wasn’t bitter or strong, it was mellow and it never failed to make me feel a bit better. I haven’t had the tea in years—I haven’t quite forgotten about it, I just never really thought about it until now.
I could just remember so clearly being in this same position, here on the couch bundled in a mountain of blankets, and my dad would crouch in front of me and say, “Here, have this tea baby girl. It’ll make you feel better.” And then he’d smile at me—the smile that always reassured me that the sickness I was feeling now would soon pass over; that there was always something to look forward to. He had those kinds of smiles, you know? The kind only a few people were given.
I heard my mum stop shuffling in the kitchen from my sudden question, and I sniffled my nose; I could hardly breathe since it was so clogged.
I hated colds. Hated them with a passion.
“I can make you some tea.” She replied. “But baby, I’m sorry, I don’t know how your dad made that tea.”
I frowned a little from her reply; of course she wouldn’t know how to make it. But even I couldn’t ignore the sense of melancholy singed in her voice when she said this; maybe she too had forgotten about dad’s tea, and maybe I just reminded her about it. But whatever the reason, I stayed silent on the couch and watched my movie with tired eyes. I knew I looked terrible; my hair was completely unbrushed, my skin was paler than usual, and my eyes looked like they had darker colors around them from my lack of sleep. I was always tired, I was, and I tried to sleep, but I always had trouble with sleeping when I could not breathe from my nose.
Luckily, my mum went to the pharmacy to get me some medicine and she returned with a miracle called VapoRub, which I had no idea what it was but it was amazing. What I did was rub the cream under my nose so I could constantly inhale it—It smelled like a strong mint—and it cleared my nose up completely as well as my lungs.
It was simply magic, I tell you. Like my dad’s tea.
