Chapter 3
The smell of bacon grease made me want to puke a long trail across the beige linoleum of the kitchen. My stomach lurched when I took in a noseful of it.
Fel was setting the table for breakfast.
She looked at me and stuck her tongue out, then continued setting plates and forks down on the table.
Our relationship was typical of a younger sister and older brother. Truth was, we loved each other, even if half the time, we acted like we wanted to kill one another.
The clunking of the plates and silverware and the hissing of the frying bacon were all heightened. It was as if someone had increased the volume by twisting a spectral knob. Every little sound was like a giant was performing the task and they vibrated through my skull. Every smell caused my insides to roll like a tide. No headache thankfully. No fever. Just an irritated tenderness around my eyes. The light was still bothering me, but it was getting better.
I hadn’t had any time with the list of names I’d awakened to, but it was ridiculous to assume they were the reason behind my recent health scare. I had gotten sick before, even faking sick four months ago, because it was a year since Dad had died, but I had never felt this way before. Today, it was like I was floating into the kitchen on a cloud—a big, black, slick cloud.
“There’s the birthday boy,” Mom set the spatula down and went to the sink to wash her hands. Her smile made it all cool. After Dad’s death, she’d gotten happier, friendlier, more out-going. I didn’t know if it was because she wanted to be tough for me and Fel, or if she truly was happier. I just never asked. I didn’t want to know. Dad had been a great dad. I just didn’t want to know she was happier without him.
I walked to the sink and kissed her cheek.
Intense heat and flame. Mom’s running, pulling Fel behind her. She has a fierce grip on Fel’s wrist and won’t let go. Won’t let go. Flames are licking up the brown carpet, with the diamond shapes in it. It’s consuming the diamonds, one at a time. Smoke overwhelms her lungs. Mom falls.
I pulled away from her cheek. My heart pounded in my chest and my eyes felt dry.
Mom had a look like she didn’t understand. “Are you okay Richie?”
I couldn’t see my own face, but it wasn’t hard for me to imagine I looked panicked. Just the way my Mom dragged Fel through the smoke was so real. I was there. The only thing giving me any solace at all was the fact my mom stood in front of me, and she wasn’t surrounded by anything but the heat of the kitchen.
I tried to recover, to control my facial expression. I knew I was staring at her like I was a serial murderer. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. I closed them and rubbed my temples.
“Yeah, I’m alright. I just have a slight headache.”
“Get some ibuprofen from the cupboard.”
I put my hand on her back and reached into the cupboard for the bottle of ibuprofen. Even the rattle of the bottle was bothering me, shaking like the ancient rattle of a long forgotten tribe.
What was happening to me? I wanted to tell my mom, but I didn’t know how to describe it to her, and I was afraid she’d freak out. Maybe it was a mental health problem, like dementia. I knew a little about dementia from what had happened to Grandma Veronica. Dad’s mom had really scared me. I didn’t want her to, but I hadn’t understood her as she had aged. She didn’t remember any of us. However, because of Dad, I understood Grandma Veronica had lived a nightmare world where she didn’t understand what was happening to her anymore than we did. Dad tried to protect me, but when I had asked more questions than he had been prepared to answer with lies, he took me into this same kitchen and told me everything. He even ended the conversation with his patented, and effective, Delvin Lyon smile. All rights reserved.
Now, I hoped I was not the one losing my mind.
I sat down at the table and Fel floated around me, still setting the table, poking me in the ribs a couple of times as she cruised by.
I ignored it.
Mom was saying something, but I wasn’t sure what she said.
“So we’ll have a small cake here...me and you sister...Saturday...your friends...arcade and we’ll make a day of it. How does that sound?”
“Fel, stop poking me.”
“Richie, did you hear anything I said to you?’
Fel got right up in my face and stuck her tongue out. I poked her in the stomach.
“What?’
“Are you okay? I said that you should invite your friends to the arcade with us on Saturday. I’m going to take you for your birthday.”
“Okay.”
Mom flicked off the stove and came over to the table. She reached under my chin and lifted it, looking into my eyes. She turned her wrist and placed it on my forehead and pulled it back.
“No fever. Did you take the ibuprofen?”
I wasn’t sick.
I was scared.
“Should I invite Sid, Guy, and Cece?”
My mom laughed, but looked at me with a little more concern. “They are your friends, aren’t they?”
I bent down and felt the heat on my face.
I loved my mom. Just the little bit with her was making it better. I was thankful for her this morning.
She went back to the stove and arranged the toast and bacon onto a platter.
Felicia came over to me, mocking mom and put her wrist on my forehead, checking the pink Buttercup watch from The Powerpuff Girls.
Smoke. So much smoke, burning her eyes. Her lungs burned and she wanted to be free of mom’s grip but wasn’t able to get loose. This was the first time she was actually afraid she wasn’t going to see her brother again. The first time she felt she wasn’t going to come home. She wouldn’t see Buttercup again. Mom stumbled to the diamond-carpeted floor and dragged Fel with her.
I ducked her wrist and pushed her hand away from my head.
My lungs took in a gasp of air.
What was that? What was I seeing? A fire? Ohmygod!ohmygod!
Felicia was whining, pushing at my hand. Her eyes were wide with fright, and she was pulling on her arm because I had her wrist in a vise hold, knuckles white with the pressure of holding her.
“Mom! Richie won’t let go of me,” Felicia whined, but this whine was full of fear, almost crying. Mom didn’t notice at all.
“You two cut it out. Fel, sit down for breakfast and quit pestering your brother.”
I let go of Fel and she went to the other side of the table to sit down for breakfast, but her eyes never left me.
For the first time ever, my sister was frightened of me, truly terrified something was wrong with me.
She was right.
