Natural Disaster

Chapter 13

Avi gasped and awoke, eyes wide with fear and heart racing as his body jerked to catch himself from falling. He swore under his breath and tried to drive away the images of the split in the skin of the earth swallowing him up. He rubbed his eyes and sighed in annoyance. He was sick of being woken up like this.

A truly ugly sound met his ears. Listening carefully, he tried to locate and recognize the noise. Someone was vomiting. He swallowed hard and glanced to the empty side of the bed. He quickly hauled himself out of the bed, going in search of his travelling companion. “Launa?” he called, finding her outside the motel room, leaning over the railing of the porch that led to all of the motel rooms. He jogged over to her and, not knowing what else to do, rubbed her back, trying desperately to ignore the sound and smell. Man, he so did not handle people being sick well.

"It’s okay," he murmured, "I’m so sorry." She was shivering and gasping when the wave of nausea finally stopped.

"I’m sorry," she choked out, "I didn’t mean to wake you." She spat at the ground, groaning and clutching the railing.

He slid an arm around her shoulders, being very careful not to jostle her. “You didn’t,” he said, trying to be as comforting as possible, “Do you think you’re done?”

Launa shook her head. “I don’t know,” she breathed shakily, leaning into him, “I don’t know. I’m- I’m cold and-” her knees gave away, and she collapsed, falling unconscious. Avi swore, catching her.

"This is not good," he whispered, readjusting her so he could cradle her body in his arms, and felt her burning forehead, "Shit."

He quickly realized that the only option was to take her back into the room and tuck her into bed, find some medicine to take down the fever and maybe even the nausea, and wait. Setting her down on the bed, he brushed the hair away from her face and made sure she laid on her side. He grabbed the chair from the other side of the room and stood it next to her side of the bed, plopping down on it.

Avi ran his hands through his hair. God, he felt inadequate. Being the youngest in his family, he’d always been the one who got watched over when he was sick, but he’d never really had to do the same for anyone else. He rubbed his face hard. “We’re in trouble, Launa,” he said aloud, his words hanging dully in the silent room, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I hope you know that I might actually kill you.”

He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “And you better not get me sick, too.” He laughed to himself, the sound feeling empty. He couldn’t even fool himself into thinking he wasn’t worried sick.

His eyes traced her sleeping form, uncrossing his arms and wringing his hands. “Please get better, soon.”

______

Launa felt nothing but dizziness and nausea, hot and cold. Her vision swam and the room around her spun. She was a mass of discomfort and fever, and she couldn’t even stay awake long enough to take anything for it. She thought she heard Avi’s voice once or twice, and she smiled, delirious from the fever.

She remembered saying his name and holding his hand at some point, and she remembered him singing to her, some sort of carol, she was sure of it. It wasn’t one she was familiar with, but she thought his voice looked like molten gold, and she reached out to touch it, frustrated when she couldn’t grasp it.

She remembered saying she wanted her Mother, wanted to be back home, wanted to take him to meet her Mom, “You’d like her, Avi, she likes music, too, and she’s short. Grandma’s short too, but you wouldn’t like her she’s a stubborn old bat.” She vaguely remembered telling him about her Grandmother and just how fucking stubborn the woman was, and how one time, on vacation, she didn’t believe that her daughter was sick until the doctor on their cruise ship got angry with her.