This Deep Secret

At school we didn’t talk. Didn’t even look at each other. We were both so angry with each other. Our friends were confused about our sudden break up. I didn’t even really talk to them that much since it happened. At lunch I went off campus to do my own business (but mostly to get away from him).

At home, my mom was getting better. She went to the doctor’s and they prescribed her medicine to get over it faster.

On Thursday, Aiden started sneezing. We blamed it on allergies. Friday night he started crying and getting sick everywhere. He got the sickness going around the house. My mom knew what to do on Friday with him. After all, she had raised us both. She kept him quiet when he started to cry and put him to sleep when he was tired, but couldn’t sleep. She was a miracle worker in my opinion.

“Harper, I have to go into work right now; I’ve missed too much this passed week.”

I looked at her horrified. She was leaving me with a sick child? What was I going to do?

“Y-you’re leaving me with Aiden?” I asked, panicking.

She nodded, throwing things into her purse.

“b-but I don’t know hot to take care of a sick kid.”

She looked at me, “Harper, your maternal instinct will show. You’ll know what to do.”

I gulped and nodded uneasily. “Okay...”

“Just call me if you can’t handle it.”

I nodded again and she kissed me on the cheek then ran out of the house. I was alone with Aiden now. I could hear him in his room, whining. Taking a deep breath, I walked in. This couldn’t be so bard.

Three hours later, Aiden wouldn’t stop crying and I was about ready to strangle him.

“Buddy, what’s wrong?” I asked calmly.

“My,” He sniffed, gasping for breath, “tummy,” Sniff. Gasp. “Hurts.”

I groaned, “I know Aiden. I just can’t make it disappear.”

He started crying again. I let out a muffled scream. This was going horribly. I was going to be a bad mother. I left him in his bed and went to get my cell phone to call my mom. I called four times, but no one answered. This was torture.

I paced back and forth in the kitchen trying to come up with some sort of way to get him to stop crying. After fifteen minutes of pacing and Aiden’s cries in the background I went to my last resort. William.

He had a little brother as well and his mom was always home on Saturdays. They’d know what to do.

I carried Aiden to my car and sat him in the back, telling him to buckle himself. We were both in our pajamas and we both looked like wrecks. This was my last resort. I didn’t know what else to do.

I drove the whole way there in silence (as much silence as a crying child could give you). William lived on the other side of town and it took me fifteen minutes to get there. As I turned into his neighborhood, I prayed that his truck was sitting outside. Thanking God as I saw it in front of the big two story house, I pulled up behind it.

Aiden reached out his arms for me when I opened his door. Picking him up, I slowly walked to the door. He was doing that sniffle-gasp thing again when I knocked on the door. Twenty seconds later, the door opened and William was standing before me, looking confused.

“Look, I understand you hate me or whatever, but Aiden’s sick and my mom had to go into work and he won’t stop crying and he’s throwing up and I don’t know what to do and I’m about ready to lose it.” I had started crying myself towards the end of my rant.

It all happened in a flash. One second I was crying to William and the next there was warm liquid running down my front side. I gasped, shocked.

“Okay, okay.” William said as he took him out of my arms.

My mouth was hanging wide open still.

“Hey Buddy, do you feel better?” He asked him.

Aiden nodded, still slightly crying.

“Come in Harper, I’ll get you a towel.”

I slowly walked in, silent.

“Mom, Harper’s here and she brought Aiden over because he’s sick and won’t stop crying!” He called out.

His mother walked out of the kitchen and looked at me. “Oh, Honey, what’s all over your shirt?”

I had always liked his mom. She was such a heartfelt person that didn’t lie to anyone. “Aiden threw up on me outside.”

She gasped, “Oh, okay, why don’t you go take a shower,” She said, taking Aiden out of William’s arms. “Bill, go get her a towel and tell Courtney to get her some clothes.”

He nodded and I followed him down to his room in the basement.

“There’s a towel in there. I’ll get Courtney to bring down some clothes.”

I looked up at him, “Thank you, William.”

He nodded then walked back up the stairs. Sighing, I shut myself into the bathroom. He was still mad.