SIERRA'S LEONE

TOOTHACHE

The chickenpox episode began to fall into the souvenir box of their mind, and life regained its course. Jonas, too, was back to his old self again.

The man worked relentlessly to catch up with his work. Sierra did not know how much someone self-employed could work. She imagined they had more leisure time, but Jonas proved otherwise with the strict schedule he kept. He worked eight, sometimes more. As soon as the glasses decorated the bridge of his nose and framed his face, Sierra knew the man was tired, and when he placed a blue screen, it was the indication that Jonas's exhaustion reached its limit.

The man watched her and forgot Sierra observed him as well. Leone liked to see what Jonas was up to too. He would use his father's leg as support and try to see what he was doing. Jonas would pick him up and place Leone on his knees before pursuing his work while Leone's hands would get into mischief.

Sierra would follow the endearing scene. The father and son relationship scared her for what it was. No matter how heartwarming, the woman did not forget the expiry date attached.

It broke her heart for Leone, who Sierra knew already loved his father. The infant even picked up some of Jonas's mimics, which made it difficult for Sierra, who directly found herself thinking of the man. Blue eyes and blonde hair, Sierra imagined how handsome Leone would be.

In those moments where her mind began to fantasize, and her heart started to conjure feelings, Sierra did a mental harakiri, sectioned her heart into perfect halves, and prayed the days would fly directly to Jonas's departure.

That night Leone sat quiet, too quiet.

What caught Sierra's attention was his lack of interest in Jonas, who worked silently in his corner.

Sierra lifted Leone; again, the child burnt with fever.

"Jonas, there's something wrong with Leone."

The boy excessively drooled while chewing frantically on one of his toys.

Sierra pulled it out, "stop it, Leone, don't chew your toys."

Leone blinked in dismay as if to say are you testing me? Before letting out the mother of all high pitch soprano notes that made Jonas jump from his chair. From then on, the little boy began to pull on his hair while throwing his head back.

What had Sierra done?

The woman panicked, "what's wrong, Leone?"

Leone cried, he was in immense pain, and Sierra regretted having bothered him.

The little boy versed all the gibberish he had to say as he tried to explain in ba-ba language how he suffered while drool and tears trickled down his face.

Jonas left Sierra with Leone only to come back after having washed his hands.

"What are you doing, Jonas?"

The man opened Leone's mouth and placed a finger on his lower central incisor's gum before doing the same to the upper.

Leone stopped moving. He looked at both of them with a sorrowful face.

In front of Sierra's bewildered stare, Jonas proceeded to the explanations, "he's teething, Sierra."

"How did you guess?"

The man beamed proud of himself, "well, since the chickenpox incident, I thought I should upgrade on my knowledge too. The books you have are instructive."

"So what are you going to do now? You're not going to spend your evening with your finger in Leone's mouth, are you?"

"No," Jonas took Leone from Sierra's hands, "can you get a clean cloth, wet it, and bring it over ?"