“Oh, no,” I say, setting the tray down on the nightstand. “Are you not feeling good, Niko?” I sit on the bed beside him.
He shakes his head and whimpers.
I’m not a doctor, but I can clearly see that he might have a fever. “Looks like you’ve got a bit of a fever. I’m gonna see if we have any medicine around here, okay? You just stay here. If you can, try to eat some breakfast, okay?”
Nikolas nods, and I stand up, heading to my bathroom to see if I have anything. I rifle through the cabinets under the sink and inside the medicine cabinets, but I only find medicine for stomach problems. Nothing for fevers.
Frustration grows inside of me, and I hurry downstairs. I grab a clean dish towel and wrap it around a bag of frozen peas. I also grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. When I return to his room, Nikolas is quietly chewing on the piece of toast I made for him.
I take a seat on the edge of the bed and hand him the peas. “Can you hold these on your forehead?” I ask.
He obliges, pressing the bag to his head. I don’t know what else to do. I know that Matvei would be mad if I did nothing, but I don’t want to leave the house or leave Nikolas alone. The last few times he’s been on his own, he’s played with switchblades and nearly burned the house down. Letting him fend for himself while I run out of the house is out of the question.
Unsure what else to do, I grab my phone and dial Dad’s number. He answers after the first couple of rings. “Hey, honey,” he says. “How are you doing?”
“I’m alright,” I say. “Listen, Nikolas isn’t feeling too hot, and I don’t know what I should do to help him.”
“What’s going on?”
“Well, he has a fever, and he doesn’t seem to have much of an appetite. I’ve looked all over the house, but I couldn’t find any medicine that would reduce it. I decided to just wrap a bag of peas up in a towel and use them as an ice pack.”
When I check to see if they’re working, Nikolas shakes his head ‘no’ slowly.
“Where’s Matvei?” Dad asks.
“I’m not sure. Probably out doing business.” Maybe he’s at the club, handling whatever problem he’s got going on right now. I consider telling Dad that he ran out after last night, but I bite my tongue. There are more important things to worry about than that.
“I guess I’m just surprised that you called me,” he says.
I sigh. “Who else would I call?”
“I know, it’s just …”
He doesn’t have to finish the thought because I’m certain we’re thinking the same thing. When I was younger, most of the time, he was chasing the bottom of some bottle, wasted out of his mind. Very rarely was he lucid enough to actually be a parent and take care of me. When he did, however, he was great at it. It was always more proof of the one thing I know to be true of my father: beneath all his demons, he’s a good man.
I wonder if I can say the same thing about Matvei.
“It’s okay, Dad. Is there anything I should do to try and help break this fever? He’s looking really bad, and I’m getting worried.” I lower my voice and turn my head so Nikolas can’t hear me.
“If he’s feeling nauseous, try to give him some medicine to settle his stomach. Aside from that, it sounds like you’re doing all you can. Alternate between a wet rag and the cold peas. See if that helps.”
“Okay,” I say, nodding. I feel a little more confident. If I’m doing everything that Dad did before, then I must be doing something right.
After my call with Dad, I spend some more time with Nikolas, trying to cheer him up. I read his favorite books and try to interest him in some of his action figures, but none of it seems to be working. His fever hasn’t broken, and if anything, he looks worse.
I decide that I can’t sit here and let this continue.
I load Nikolas into the car and pull out of the driveway, sending a quick text to Matvei to know where we are. The last time we did this, he was scared that something bad had happened. If he’s kept up to date, I think he’ll take the bad news