Riki woke up to a half-empty bed. She turned to look at the clock on her bedside table and the baby monitor beside it. There was no movement from Kaia's room so Riki knew that it was still rather early in the morning. She pressed on the light button on the clock and it shone the time at 5:48am. Riki put her hand to her forehead and decided on going back to sleep or starting the day. She had barely thought of her day's schedule when she heard unusual noises from outside the door.
The top floor and stair of their home was covered in carpet. She and Niko decided to have it carpeted for the meantime until Kaia could manage going up and down the stairs independently. Although they still had baby gates on the tops and bottoms of their stairs, they had the 'main' stairs to the bedrooms carpeted, as well as the stairs that lead to the basement and studio. The carpet served as both a sound proofing and protection.
When Riki looked toward the bedroom door, she noticed that it was not closed fully. She sat up and listened some more. Riki could hear a mixture of sounds from outside.
She slowly got up and peeped into Kaia's room before going down. She saw Niko hovered over the kitchen counter with a towel over his head.
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"Iggy?"
"...sorry...did I wake you?"
"...are you okay?"
Niko removed the towel as he turned to look at Riki. His face was flushed and sweaty.
"Are you okay?" Riki repeated. Niko put out his hand to tell her to stay where she was standing, at the threshold between the living room and stairs and the kitchen.
"I couldn't sleep..." Niko began, his voice sounded odd. "My nose is stuffy and my eyes feel hot. Wait...what if this is..."
"Don't say it...uhm...how else do you feel? Can you smell anything? Can you taste anything?" Riki tried not to panic. "Wait for me here..." she said as she rushed back upstairs to get her phone.
"...do you remember who you called when I got sick before?" Riki asked as she began scrolling through her phone.
"Uhmm...my cousin...he recommended a palliative care service...there's also those clinics that do home-service testing, I think...I read it on our village messaging group..."
Riki scrolled through the message group and sent out a message for help. Within a few minutes, one of their neighbors responded.
