/ Chapter: 12 Sick Day/
Story by: Lolmaster
Edited by: Magistrix
“Why is everything so dark in here?” I thought to myself as I was surrounded by nothing but darkness.
Immediately questions where flying around my mind, such as “Where am I?” and “Why am I here?”.
Once again my whole body just felt numb and heavy and just wouldn’t respond to any attempts to move it whatsoever.
“What the hell is going on? Why is it so dark? Why can’t I move a single muscle? And where the heck am I?” I thought to myself, not knowing that I would soon get my answers in a way I probably wouldn’t like.
A flash of lightning suddenly began to illuminate the entire area around me, causing me to shut my eyes in pain from its sudden brightness.
As I reopened them I was greeted with the images of a dark and gloomy looking forest with fog covering the ground and trees that looked very old and, by the looks of it, pretty dead as well.
This place looked very familiar. Something stirred in the back of my mind.
At that exact moment I suddenly felt my body again, being able to move my arms and muscles once more.
I quickly but shakily stood back up onto my two legs and began to take a much more careful observation of my surroundings.
Everything looked so dark and gloomy with old, dead trees as far as the eye can see, and fog and mist covering the ground that restricted my vision. Saying this place was creepy was a total understatement. No animal sounds or any kind of noises were present. Everything was just so quiet, with only some distant thunder rumbling somewhere in the distance. And to make things even more strange was the fact that I somehow remembered this place and didn’t have a clue why.
I decided that standing around here was never going to give me the answers to all of my questions, so I began to follow some sort of dirt path that I just managed to find in front of me.
As I walked down the path I began to hear some distant whispers from within the shadows of this forest which was very unnerving and unsettling.
But the problem was that there was just nothing to see around me other than constant fog and dead trees, and calling out to the whispering voices of course resulted in no response whatsoever.
I was starting to get slightly frightened by all of this especially without knowing where I was or why I’m here and most importantly how.
More thunder sounds continued to echo somewhere within the distance as I walk deeper and deeper into the shadows, with the whispers still chanting from within the darkness.
But then, after a few steps, I suddenly noticed a light source up in front of me and could clearly see that it was a clearing; a way out of this dreadful forest after a long and Irritating walk that felt like forever for me.
I immediately quickened my pace to reach my only possible way out of this place. The whispers and chanting began to get louder and faster the closer I got, all to the point where it was almost maddening to hear. With one final sprint I managed to finally reach the opening and out into freedom.
The whispers at that moment mysteriously stopped, returning everything around me back to its original silent state with only the distant thunder sounds still echoing through the grey cloudy skies. Everything around me was barren, empty and completely lifeless.
A wide open plain of nothing with empty hills, a decayed settlement and a greyish mountain range in the distance.
But then it suddenly hit me.
The empty barren lands, the decayed settlement down the hill and the ruins in the far distance, I was back in that dream, that one particular dream I once had so many nights ago.
“Why am I dreaming this particular dream again?”, I asked myself as I looked around the landscape in front of me.
The dream looked exactly the same way as I remembered it with the only difference that it wasn’t raining. As I simply looked at the dead and barren landscape in front of me I began to once again hear a voice whispering. The voice and words began to slowly become louder and clearer with every passing second.
“Daddy?” I heard the voice whisper.
“Daddy?“ I heard it again, this time much clearer.
By the nature and sound of that whisper I was mostly convinced that it could possibly be Celestia herself talking to me within this strange nightmare but after looking around and trying to pinpoint the source of this whisper I was quickly shocked to see that there was another unicorn standing behind me instead of Celestia, completely dirty and messy with blood shot eyes and a close resemblance to a certain little filly.
I just didn’t know why or how but I just had this distinct feeling that this creature in front of me was somehow Celestia herself judging from the unicorn’s white fur and wings. But the mane and tail were completely different from the normal pinkish colour that my Celly has.
But after taking a closer and more detailed look I was immediately stunned to see that this creature in front of me was indeed my Celly only fully grown instead of still being a filly.
She just stood there in front of me being a complete mess and crying tears of pure depression, something I was sure of wouldn’t be possible on her sweet little face.
“Daddy...why?” she quietly asked me in a whisper.
I was absolutely confused with her question, but before I could even get a word out myself she began to speak again.
“Why...why did you abandon us?” she asked me in her depressed and sad tone.
“WHY!” she suddenly shouted, startling me.
“Why did you abandon us Dad? How could you? We all depended on you, believed in you, and you just left us all, everybody, alone to fight and to fend for ourselves. Why did you do that Dad? Was it because of us, because of me? Did I do something wrong? Don’t you love me anymore Dad?” she suddenly shouted angrily in the beginning but quickly changed to a very quiet and sad tone at the end.
I was more than a little confused after having heard her say those words with those expressions and feelings. What was she talking about? What does she mean by ‘us’ and ‘everybody’? Fighting and defending themselves from what and most importantly why does Celestia look so shattered and heartbroken?
Millions of questions where racing through my mind, preventing me from producing any form of normal thoughts or actions.
But I was quickly brought back from my utter confusion state as Celestia in front of me began to speak again after a long pause.
“I’m sorry Dad, I’m so sorry. If I ever did something wrong to you that would have caused you to abandon us like that then I just want to tell you that I am deeply sorry Dad,” she suddenly said while crying and sobbing through every sentence.
“You probably might hate us all by now, especially me and my sister...but…but even though that might be the case I…I still love you Daddy,” she quickly said after another long pause and this time having a sad smile on her face until going back to her sad and depressed form.
I was just absolutely stunned and speechless after all of that and had trouble saying or doing anything at all.
“What kind of a nightmarish dream is this?” was the only decent thought running through my mind.
The storm from before was already directly over me and Celestia as the winds were battering both of our bodies.
Lightning and thunder were raging above us casting the barren lands around us in flashes of light and ear shattering sounds.
Celestia at this point was still locking her gaze onto the ground, not even once turning her head to look at me after her last speech, with her tears now freely flowing and being carried with the winds of the storm.
I was finally about to say something for the first time after recovering from my utter shock and surprise, but was once again interrupted by Celestia as she lifted her head back up again and looked at me with an even more depressing look than I thought would even be possible for her.
“Goodbye Dad I…I have to leave now. I’m sorry,” she suddenly said between tears and quiet sobs.
She quickly turned her head back to face the ground as she began to cry tears of pure sadness, with her tears glistening in the air as they flew away by way of the winds.
“Celly wait!” I finally called out before realizing that it was already too late.
Lightning suddenly hit her, drowning everything for a few moments in an eye blinding light and forcing me to close my eyes from its sheer brightness.
When I opened my eyes again I was shocked to see that Celestia wasn’t there anymore. All that was left was scorched dirt from where she once stood.
I quickly panicked after realizing that.
But before I could even react to that my body suddenly felt incredibly numb as a sudden burst of heat and pain started to course through my body, making me go completely limp as I fell to the ground.
Judging from the immense electricity coursing through my nerves meant that I as well got stricken by lightning as I was completely unable to move even a single muscle in my body.
The world around me quickly faded away as I began to lose any form of sense or feeling. Everything slowly started to go black until there was nothing but darkness and silence.
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I quickly shot up from my bed and immediately opened my eyes.
I was back in my room. Back in the real world away from that dreadful nightmare.
My body was drenched in sweat and my breathing was heavy as I just sat there on my bed alone within my dark bedroom.
I quickly turned on my bedside lamp as I sat up properly and glanced at the large clock above my door.
“Only 4 in the morning,” I thought to myself.
I suddenly began to sneeze and cough heavily after attempting to move out of bed to go over to the bathroom.
I quickly felt very weak and ill and, by holding a hand over towards my forehead, easily confirmed my predictions as I felt that my forehead and basically my whole body was burning up.
Somehow I managed to get the flu.
“Great, absolutely great, falling ill after waking up from a horrible nightmare,” I thought to myself in annoyance.
“Well it was my fault anyway. Getting myself accidently wet during a very cold day while watering some flowers outside was really something I should have been more careful about,” I thought to myself in regret.
“Well at least I can I can excuse myself from the upcoming convention in a few days and just stay at home. That’s a plus I guess?” I told myself in an unsure manner.
After coughing and sneezing a few more times, I decided to just get up and go over to my cabinet to get myself changed from these wet stained cloths and to also get myself an extra blanket simply because of my chills that I suddenly got.
“And let’s not forget that I still need to go to the bathroom,” I quickly reminded myself.
After getting everything done and finishing my trip to the bathroom, I quickly went back to bed and laid myself down.
The nightmare was still lingering inside my mind heavily, keeping myself awake even though I was very tired and weak. “Why did I have that one particular nightmare again and most importantly why was Celestia in there as well?” I asked myself in my head.
But thinking about it more right now whilst having a fever and just recently a pounding headache was not going to give me any answers of benefit anytime soon.
“Might try to think about this again in the morning,” I simply told myself as I made myself comfortable and immediately went back to sleep.
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(Celestia’s POV)
I woke up with the sun’s rays invading my white coated face, making my body feel warm as I slowly began to open my eyes.
I smiled at the wonderful sight of the morning sun and thanked it for waking me up in my most favourite way possible.
I began to carefully rub my eyes with my hoof to remove any trace of sleepiness left in me and to properly start the day.
Every morning for me is always exciting since you will never know what could possibly be in store for you, which makes every new day like a short adventure of wondering and imagining.
Taking my gaze over to my right I could see my sisters bed just right next to mine with Luna comically sprawled out on her bed while still sleeping like a rock.
It is always makes me giggle and laugh silently to myself whenever I wake up and see her in this downright silly position.
She basically looks like a dog laying on its back with her mouth wide open and her tongue sticking out on the side.
She just looks so funny.
Normally when I wake up before my sister does (which happens almost every morning), I would wake her up and tell her to get out of bed as well.
But today I simply decided to leave her be as she seemed to be in much better care in her dreamland as I saw her smile and mutter something happily in her sleep.
Which again just looked absolutely cute on her.
After finishing my business in the bathroom, making myself ready for the day and giving my sister a short nuzzle, simply because I just wanted to, I made my way out of our room and into the massive hallway.
I quickly decided to head over to the kitchen to get myself something to eat and to also greet both Dad and John a happy good morning.
“Good morning John,” I happily greeted him after entering the kitchen.
“Good morning to you too miss Celestia,” he greeted me back with his lovable British accent.
“Come on John stop calling me ‘Miss’. It makes me feel like a grown-up. Just call me Celly like everybody else” I quickly told him back with a giggle.
I was about to greed Dad as well until I quickly realized that he wasn’t here at all after looking around the kitchen a bit.
This was easily a bit strange given the fact that Dad is usually always the first one to get up and out before either I or Lulu would.
“John, do you know where Dad is?” I simply asked him with a bit of a confused look.
“I have just checked on sir Julius a few minutes ago. He is still in his room lying in bed,” Sir John answered me.
“Why is Dad still in bed? That seems very unusual for him to be still in bed at this time.”, I accidentally said it out loud as I was grabbing the cereal box from within a cupboard.
“Well it’s because sir Julius is sick and has a fever,” John calmly replied.
At that moment I dropped the cereal box onto the ground as my heart almost skipped a beat after hearing that.
I was completely shocked to hear that.
“Wait, Dad is sick and has a fever as well?” I quickly asked John in utter shock.
“Well its nothing too serious, sir Julius only has a...” John began but couldn’t really finish whatever he was trying to tell me as I simply dashed out the room and back towards the direction of Dad’s room in utter panic.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh Dad is sick! He never gets sick...oh please let Dad be ok. Let Dad be ok, PLEASE!” I was thinking in my mind again and again as I had only one concern in my mind as I madly dashed my way through the long corridors towards my dad’s room.
On the way I quickly spotted my little sister Luna walking along the hall, rubbing her eyes while her mane was still messy.
But none of that was any of my concern as I quickly dashed past her as well, leaving her with a utter confused look as I was getting closer to Dad’s room.
“Big sis, wait! What’s wrong?” I heard her ask from behind me but again didn’t pay much attention to her as my mind was already occupied.
I literally slammed the door open (which very much hurt) as I reached the door to Dad’s room.
“Dad are you ok?” I quickly asked while standing directly in front the entrance.
The window curtains were still in place, preventing the rays of the morning sun to illuminate the room and leaving this place still being a bit dark and gloomy.
At the centre of all of this was Dad’s bed with Dad himself still being in it with his eyes closed.
My fears and worries had risen to a completely new level after seeing that. I immediately galloped over to his bed and jumped on it to get myself closer to him.
“Dad, are you alright? Please say something? Dad?” I rapidly said while shaking him a bit with my hoof to try and wake him up.
He slowly opened his eyes to my utter relief as he began to look at me while giving me a warm welcoming smile.
“Well hello there, Celly. What’s all the ruckus about?” he happily asked me while coughing a few times between his words.
I was absolutely relieved to see him smile like that at me but also very concerned for coughing like that as well.
“I heard that you were sick so I came here as fast as I could to see if everything was ok with you Dad,” I quickly told him with concern.
“Everything is alright with me Celly. I just have a cold, that’s all,” he quickly told me smiling but failed as he was forced to cough again.
I just wanted to believe him that he was ok, but with every other cough he was giving out I just got even more and more concerned for him, which easily made me feel more and more sorry for my poor sick Dad.
At the same moment Luna came in as well and was looking at the both of us with confused looks, probably not sure what was going on here.
“Eh Dad, what’s going on here?” Luna asked after entering the lightly lit room.
“Dad is sick Lulu,” I immediately answered her.
I could immediately see her shocked expression forming on her face after telling her that as she began to quickly join me and dad as well by galloping over to us.
“Oh my gosh, is dad going to be alright?” she quickly asked me after joining me beside his bed.
“I don’t know sis,” I answered her.
“I’m really fine; don’t worry you two. In a few days I’ll be back on my feet stronger than ever,” Dad reassured us.
Both of us still looked very worried even though Dad was trying his best to tell us that everything would be fine, which I automatically knew he would be but still I just couldn’t help myself to just feel worried and concerned for him. And having a very high fever wasn’t really helping me to fully believe his claims.
“Here sir Julius; a glass of water and your breakfast as you requested,” John announced as he came in with a tray full of food and a glass of water.
“Thanks John,” Dad thanked him as he placed the tray onto his bed table right next to him.
“Sir Julius, I am going out to the nearest drug store to buy some needed medicine for your illness, if that is ok with you sir?” John asked Dad afterwards.
“Oh yes. I completely forgot that we don’t have any meds in this house. Sure John, if I want to get better as soon as possible then we need to purchase some,” Dad announced.
Before John could turn around and leave the room to go out and buy some medicine, Luna quickly shouted out to get everybody’s attention.
“Wait, what about Dad! Who is going to look after him while John is out of this house?” Luna immediately asked.
It took me maybe a few seconds of thinking to regard Lulu’s question but quickly managed to get an idea on how to solve this problem with ease.
“I will!” I happily announced to everyone.
Luna was looking at me a bit surprised after I announced that and I simply gave her a small wink in return to make sure that I was serious.
“I will look after Dad while John is out. I always wanted to take care of him the same way he has taken care of us and what better opportunity than right now,” I quickly told Luna and everybody else in the room.
“Well that’s not a bad idea but are you sure you want to be the one taking care of me?” Dad asked me.
I gave him a soft smile before answering him.
“For you, I will do anything Daddy. Besides my friends and Lulu, you are the most important person in the world to me,” I told him after climbing up the bed and laying myself right next to him.
“I wouldn’t be so close to me Celly, you might get infected as well,” Dad suddenly warned me.
“You have a fever right?” I asked Dad. He nodded.
“Which means that you have the chills, right?” I asked him. He nodded again.
“Well than as my first duty of being your nurse would be to keep you warm and cosy, and what better way to do so than to snuggle with you,” I told him with a smile.
I could feel my ears being scratched from behind me again as I could only giggle and sigh in delight at that wonderful feeling.
I just absolutely love it whenever Dad is scratching me behind my ears.
“Well then it seems like you, sir ,are in good care while I’m gone. I guess I take my leave then and be back as soon as possible,” John excused himself as he went out through the door, leaving my sister and I alone with our sick father.
Right after John left the scene and was out of sight Luna suddenly also climbed up my bed as well and joined her sister by her side while smiling down at me from her position.
“Can I help as well?” Luna asked Dad sweetly.
“Sure, if you want to,” Dad answered her.
Luna only nodded in response as Dad also gave her a little scratch behind the ears. By the looks of it she was really enjoying it too as she just fell down onto the bed instantly while smiling happily with her tongue out and her eyes half open.
I giggled; seeing Luna reacting like that is just one of the many moments where Luna is just being downright silly and it’s also those many reasons why I just love her so much. “Well Daddy, if there is anything you need then just tell us, ok,” I told him happily.
Dad immediately got to work eating his breakfast while we simply sat there watching him and happily waiting for him to finish.
As he was eating I decided to do something for him. Since he was going to be inside his bed for a while and not moving much at all, I decided to try and massage his legs a bit to prevent them from feeling numb.
“Uh Celly, why are massaging my right leg?” Dad asked me after finishing up his breakfast.
“To prevent your legs going numb. And the best solution for that would be to massage them,” I explained to him.
“From where did you learn that?” He asked her between coughs.
“I learned it at school the other day from the school nurse,” I told him.
I clearly remember the day when I accidentally tripped over a small hole on the ground during school recess and twisted one of my hind legs.
It was painful indeed and was rushed over to the school nurse immediately after by my amazing friend Lukas, who piggy-back rode me there (which back at the time was actually quite embarrassing for me, but thinking back to it now it was actually pretty nice to carried by somebody else besides my dad and definitely wouldn’t mind doing that again, well not in front of all of my classmates, that is).
It took me a whole week to convince everybody in my school that Lukas and I were just friends and not anything special like boyfriend or girlfriend.
But after arriving at the nurse and Lukas taking his leave, I was immediately treated and nursed by her after telling her what happened, which didn’t just include some healing cream and some bandages but also a nice relaxing massage to help get rid of some of the soreness in my leg. I was just so amazed by it that I immediately asked her to teach me it as well.
And now, I am using that skill and knowledge to help my Dad with his problems and make his sickness much more bearable.
I seriously would do anything to help him. I know that I could probably never repay him for all the kindness and care he has given us for all these years, but whenever I have a chance to I take it without question.
Luna was carefully watching me as I continued to carefully rub and massage Dad’s leg with great interest.
“Can I try to do the other one?” she suddenly asked me curiously.
“Sure you can, Lulu. Just copy what I am doing and it should work,” I happily answered her.
She only nodded as I gave her some space for her. She immediately began to copy my every single movement and technique.
Dad only simply laid there watching us doing our part of nursing him back to health by making his days of being sick more bearable and enjoyable.
“Uhm Luna, could you maybe go and get me another glass of water , please,” Dad asked Luna after finishing off his glass.
“Aye, aye sir,” was Luna’s quick response. She grabbed the glass and dashed off out of the room leaving me and Dad alone in the room.
I was pretty much done at this point with the leg massage. I simply sat up onto my flank and faced Dad with a happy expression.
“Uh, thanks for the leg massage, Celly. It was really nice of you to do this for me,” Dad thanked me between coughs.
“Anytime Dad,” I answered him with a caring smile.
“I can also do your back if you want me too?” I asked him a bit shyly.
“Oh no, you really don’t have to Celly its really…” Dad began but was quickly interrupted by his sickness as he started to cough violently.
“Daddy,” I called out to him in concern as I moved over to him.
He was suddenly coughing wildly and uncontrollably, which really raised my fear and concern for him as I tried my best to make him stop.
After a while he finally stopped, breathing heavily to try and get some air back inside his lungs.
I was now very afraid and concerned for my Dad after that frightening display.
“Dad are you ok?” I ask him with great worry as some small tears were running down my cheeks.
“Yes…I’m fine Celly. It’s normal for my type of cold,” he tried to reassure me but after that panicking scene it was sadly not working this time.
“You’re always saying that Dad, but I just can’t help feeling worried and concerned for you. I don’t want you to be sick Dad. I always get so scared whenever there is something wrong with you, ” I told him in tears. Dad’s only response was to gently stroke the back of my neck, which actually managed to calm my nerves a bit as I just closed my eyes and leaned myself against his hand to simply relish at his wonderful, caring touch.
“I know how much you care for me, Celly. And I am really touched by it, but you just have to calm down a bit and believe me when I’m saying that I will be alright. It’s not the first time I’ve had a flu like this,” Dad calmly told me with a smile.
I don’t know how he always does that but once again for the millionth time I could feel myself getting calmer and more relaxed with every passing second.
I finally wiped some of my tears away and gave a small, weak smile at him in return.
“I know Dad but…well, you know me. I just really care for you. I just want you to be as happy as us,” I told him truthfully.
“Yeah, I already know that,” he said after coughing again.
“Do you want a back massage, Dad?” I asked him with a smile.
“Maybe another time, sweetie,” he answered, again after coughing.
I only smiled at him as I was about to skip over to him to make myself more comfortable but was quickly interrupted doing so as I heard a very loud clambering sound coming from the hallway.
“Oh, darn it,” I heard Luna curse.
I quickly gave Dad a sheepish smile for my little sister’s language as I quickly jumped down from Dad’s bed and went out of his room to check what was going on out there.
I really had to suppress myself from collapsing to the floor, laughing my flank out after I witnessed what was in front of me.
Luna, instead of bringing just a glass of water, brought with her a whole tray of glasses full of water and a water jug as well.
On her way over here she must have tripped and lost her balance as the entire floor was now covered in spilled water and broken glass, with her in the middle and half her head covered by the water jug.
She was completely soaked from head to tail and her expression was just absolutely priceless.
In events like these, I am not ashamed to fully admit that I wish I had a camera.
“Oh Luna you’re so silly sometimes but that’s just one of the reasons why I just love you so much as my sister,” I thought as I slowly moved towards her.
“Hey Lulu, everything ok with you?” I asked her while trying hard not to laugh at her.
She only looked at me with a pretty annoyed look until she eventually exhaled in a defeated fashion as she looked back at me with that same defeated look.
“Alright sis, you can laugh at me if you want to simply because I know you want too,” she suddenly said.
At that point I just accepted her offer as I immediately collapsed to the floor and began roll around while laughing my butt off.
For a moment, Luna was pretty annoyed with the fact that I was actually enjoying myself at her expense, but after a while her frowned look slowly changed into a happy smile until she eventually started to laugh along with me.
After a few minutes of rolling around on the floor, we eventually, slowly, started to settle down as both of us began to sit back up while trying to catch our breaths.
“So how is Daddy doing?” Luna asked me first, after she was done.
“Well…he always says that it is going to be fine but I just can’t help myself to just feel worried and concerned for him, especially since it is pretty rare for him to actually get sick in the first place,” I truthfully told her.
“Yeah me too, sis. For the record, I just heard Dad’s loud coughs as well from before,” Luna added with a sad tone.
It’s really not often for Luna to openly admit that she shares the same love and care for our dad just as I do, which always makes me smile whenever I get the chance to hear her admit that.
“Come Lulu, let’s get this cleaned up and then head back to the kitchen to make a jug full of orange juice for Dad. I’ll help you carry this time,” I announced in which Luna simple nodded.
After cleaning everything up and making some healthy orange juice for our Dad, Luna and I carried the tray back towards Dad’s room.
“Hey look, somebody is opening the main door,” Luna suddenly pointed out while not paying any attention to the fact that both of us were carrying a tray holding a full jug of orange juice together.
I had to quickly grab the jug from the other end with both of my hooves to prevent it from splashing to the ground for the second time and spilling everything back onto the floor.
“Luna, stop wiggling around you almost made us spill all of this juice here,” I told her angrily.
“Sorry, but hey, look! John is back!” Luna called out.
Looking over to where Luna was gazing, I could see that she was quite right; John finally came back with a bag full of goodies and hopefully medicine as well.
After hanging his raincoat jacket and placing his black coloured Fedora on a nearby hat rack, John steadily made his way right towards us from where we were standing.
“Hi John,” both of us simultaneously greeted him.
“A pleasant greetings to you too, young misses. How is your father doing?” John asked us.
“Well, pretty good I would guess. Wait, do you have the medicine?” I asked him with great anticipation.
“Well yes I do, your father can take them right away,” John told us.
I was really happy to hear that from John simply because it means that Dad will soon be on his way to recovery and back to his full strength.
“I could take that off of you if you two want me too?” John asked us after seeing us struggle a bit with the tray on our backs.
“Thanks but no thanks, we can handle it, right Lulu?” I quickly told John and asked my sister to which she only nodded.
Both Lulu and I, with John at the lead, continued our way back towards our Dads room with little unstable steps simply because the tray and jug full of juice on the backs of us was slowly starting to get a bit heavy.
“Greetings, sir, how are you doing?” John greeted Dad after entering the room.
“Well enough to still be alive,” Dad joked, which I particularly didn’t find funny at all.
Luna and I entered the room as well, very happy and cheery with the knowledge of not having spilled a single drop of orange juice over here after the long hassle of carrying it here from literally the other side of our huge home.
“Hey Dad, we made some orange juice for you,” I happily announced as we were both standing beside him and John.
“Oh yeah, I was wondering what happened to that glass of water I sent Luna for,” Dad rasped, probably because of all his coughing he had to do lately.
“Yeah, about that…I…uh, I spilled everything and broke a few glasses on the way over here. You told me to go get you just a single glass of water and in the end I tried to bring a whole bunch of water with a few extra glasses. In the end I managed to mess up everything,” Luna said in a shy and regretful tone.
“Oh, it’s alright Luna. We have enough glasses in this house here anyways and about the mess well John can just clean that up anyway,” Dad told her with happily.
“Oh, don’t worry Dad, Lulu and I have already done that,” I quickly told him.
“Well then, thanks for the orange juice; that is really nice of you two,” Dad thanked us kindly. Both of us only gave him a kind smile, for me simply because of his kindness and Lulu for being, once again, so forgiving.
“Well then, sir, I suggest you take your medicine if you want to get better as soon as possible and not spend a whole week in bed,” John announced as he handed the medicine pack over to Dad.
“Thanks John,” Dad thanked him after coughing again.
I quickly gave Dad a glass of orange juice to go with his new pills and then just happily waited for him to take them.
“Sir, if you need anything special I will be in the living room doing some dusting,” John excused himself as he left, leaving Luna and I alone with Dad.
We took this time to just carefully place the tray onto Dad’s bedside table to finally relieve ourselves after carrying it for so long.
The first thing I did was to jump up onto Dads bed, making myself comfortable beside him as he was drinking his glass of juice.
“Uh…I still think that you shouldn’t be so close to me when I am sick Celly,” Dad warned me with his raspy voice.
I just shook my head at his request while scooting myself even closer to him as I rested my head onto his belly and looked up at him with a warm and loving smile.
From my position, I could see that Luna was curling up beside Dad as well while closing her eyes and trying to doze off, which just looked so cute.
“I don’t care Dad, all I care about is to keep you warm and to keep you company, since I guess it would be pretty boring for you to just be all alone here for a few days while you’re sick and waiting to get better,” I told him truthfully.
Dad’s reaction after I said such kind and wonderful things is always heartwarming for me. He gave me a proud, happy smile while stroking the back of my head and neck gently.
I just always love it whenever he does that to me. It always makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside, and just so happy and lucky for having him as my father.
I just really love him, that’s all.
“Are you sure you two don’t just want to go outside and have fun or something like that?” Dad asked me.
“Nope, playing outside without you being there with us is just boring and also unfair. Besides Lulu and I are perfectly happy with spending our time here with you, and don’t forget that I also agreed to be your personal nurse. What kind of nurse would I be if I would just abandon you while you are still sick,” I explained to him with a wink at the end.
“You’re such a sweet,little angel,” Dad commented me with a smile.
“So are you,” I replied with a smile.
At that moment, I could hear Luna moaning and groaning in annoyance on the other side of the bed from where she was curled up.
“Can you two be a little bit quieter? I’m trying to nap here,” Luna drowsily complained.
I only giggled and smiled at my sisters silliness just like I always do and simply decided to do the same thing as her. I was starting to get a bit sleepy myself.
“I can easily think of something else to do after our little afternoon nap,” I thought to myself after I made myself comfortable beside Dad and laid my head back onto his belly.
“I can still give you that back massage later, if you want, Dad?” I asked him with closed eyes.
“Again, let me think about that first sweetie,” was Dad’s only response.
After a long and undisturbed silence, I could easily guess that Dad must have started to doze off as well and took that as a cue to simply wiggle myself into his blanket to make myself even more comfortable and laid my head back onto his belly; my makeshift warm and living pillow.
From the corner of my eye, I could see John standing there at the door for a split second before suddenly closing the door.
I only gave away one last smile before closing my eyes once again and getting myself ready to be taken into my dreamland.
“Taking care of Dad while he is sick is actually more relaxing than I thought. Well, for the most part. I just hope he will get better soon,” were my last thoughts as I slowly began to drift away into slumber land.