Did You Get What You Deserve?

It was after midnight when I heard the gentle click of Alec’s bedroom door. Getting quietly out of bed, I tiptoed out into the hallway, being careful not to wake Cari. Pausing outside Alec’s door, I hesitated for a second before raising my hand and tapping lightly. A moment later the door opened.

“Alec,” he whispered, “you should be asleep.”

I stood there waiting and he sighed, pulling the door open so I could move past him. I sat down on the edge of his bed and he pushed me under the covers before sliding in beside me.

“The least you can do is keep warm.”

I nodded.

“What happened with Carlton?”

He sighed slightly, but I couldn’t tell if it was a sigh of sadness or relief.

“Have you ever heard of SIDS?”

I shook my head.

“It stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Melanie walked in to check on Carlton this afternoon, and she found him blue in the face, not breathing. She tried resuscitating him, but nothing happened. So she called an ambulance...”

He drifted off. I prodded his shoulder gently.

“What happened? Did he make it?”

He nodded vaguely.

“He’s still in the hospital. There’s a machine breathing for him. If Mel had been even one minute later he would have died.”

I sat in silence, waiting for him to say something. After a minute he kissed my head and stood up.

“Time for you to go back to bed, little one. Morning makes everything better. That’s why they call it the clear light of day.”

As I padded back into my room, Cari rolled over, mumbling something about teacups and yo-yos. I climbed into bed, pulling the covers up to my chin, and lay there watching her toss and turn, her mouth open and drooling. And finally, long after she had fallen still, sleep came.