Run Away With Me

Chapter 11: Dish from northern Mexico.

Orla and Jamaica have entered a dispute that they are so passionate about that they draw the passengers' attentions, screaming at each other with such intensity that it reminds me off a political debate gone wrong.
And yet I still have no clue what they are arguing about.

I think it has something to do with how every time I open my eyes we are at a different location.

"Go to sleep," Nao says and I shrug, turning my eyes from the window to look at him.

"I'm not supposed to be sleeping at..." I look at my watch, "nine in the morning."

"Sleep." I don't do as he says, leaning my head against the rattling window while I try to focus on their discussion. Nao lays his arm over my shoulder and pulls me to him, pressing my head on his shoulder with his hand.

A yawn shakes my body and I fight against sleep, because,

One, I need to sleep at appropriate times.

And two, I just know I'll have a nightmare. I have a sixth sense about these things. And while I'm never able to remember what terrors me behind closed eyelids, it brings forth a depressing state of mind.

I push against his body and sit up. My fatigue makes the space around me swirl. There are leads hanging from my eyelashes and I'm not strong enough to hold them up.

"Loopie," he calls and I shake my head. He pokes my cheek and I shrug him away, eyelids half-closed. Nao's lips twitches, as if having planned when I will give up and sag against him.

When I open my eyes I'm in my old bedroom, soaked from head to toe in sweat.

It's two in the morning.

I know.

My body is awake due to the blistering heat that overtakes me, and common sense dictates that it should not feel like I'm in a dessert at night in the Machihagi Pack.

I think of my parents for help, but I remember they're staying out late to prepare for Alpha Rodyn's arrival.

It's hot.

Like the hot I experience every month, my head becomes hazy and I can barely walk. At these times mother would stand ready with my bottle of medicine to drink, it tastes awful, but it makes the sickness go away.

Mother isn't here, did she forget? She probably did. But she's the one who told me that it's dangerous to be around people when I feel sick, and Alpha Rodyn's subordinate, a man called Daniel, is staying with us in the room downstairs.

What should I do? I'm contagious, mother said, so I can't get near people until I drink my medicine. Where's the medicine? Probably in my parents' room. No, no, the drink is always cold, so in the refrigerator.

But the refrigerator is downstairs.

Through blurred eyes I look at my sleeping brother whose head is leaning off the bed and his foot replaces his face on the pillow. "Fran." My voice is rough. My older brother doesn't even shake. "Fran," I call again a little louder, but hold my hands over my mouth when I hear shuffling.

Heavy breathing is heard from down the hallway and I know those are not my parents'.

Daniel! I need to hide! While Fran can't catch my sickness, mother and father can, and it takes a toll on them not to get sick. So Daniel will definitely get sick if he comes in here without knowing about it.

I need to hide.

I look around.

The closet!

There's a lock, too. I shuffle from my covers and slip into the closet as I see a shadow approaching our bedroom. I turn the lock and crawl towards the end, curling into myself by the corner to make myself more invisible.