Page 36 of Caleb's Salvation
God, he also knew what it was like to lose a child. How could he bear that, how could anyone? I felt the tears come again but this time they were for him. Him and the child he’d lost.
Then I felt myself drifting away not being able to fight off the sleep that wanted to claim me. I tried to fight it, I tried to stay awake long enough that I could ask him about his child, about his wife. Tell him that I understood what it was like to lose someone you loved.
But the strength left me, and the darkness was too heavy to fight.
* * *
Vivienne
I opened my eyes and could see that the sun was up. That didn’t make sense. The sun didn’t come up until after ten in the morning. I couldn’t have slept so late. Sammy would never have let me. He must be hungry. He must need his diaper changed. I lifted my head and that’s when I saw them.
At the table. Sam was in his highchair and Caleb sat across from him with a tiny spoon in his hand.
He was making noises and waving the spoon around in front of Sammy’s face until he finally got the spoon to his mouth and plopped it inside whether Sammy wanted it or not. Sam made a face, so it must have been the mashed peas Caleb was feeding him. They were his least favorite.
“Two more bites, little guy. Okay here comes the airplane.Vrrooommmand open and there you go. Who’s the champ?”
I fell back on the bed. Caleb was playing the airplane game with Sam. How did he even know that was the only way Sam would eat his mashed peas?
This time I didn’t cry. Instead, I just laid in bed and listened to the sounds of Caleb’s airplane and Sam’s satisfied food noises until I drifted off to sleep again.
10
Cal
I looked at the contraption on the floor of the cabin with its straps and buckles and said, “Fuck that.”
I didn’t need a harness to haul a kid around. I laid Sam out on the rug, changed his cloth diaper and put it in the bucket Vivienne used for dirty diapers. Then I wrestled him into his snow suit.
He must have been feeling better because he put up a significant effort until I had his feet and hands through the appropriate holes. Booties on, mittens on, hat on and we were ready to roll.
I looked over to where Vivienne was still fast asleep. I thought about leaving a note, but we were just heading to Gert’s to pick up more supplies. We wouldn’t be gone more than thirty minutes.
Once I was in my own cold gear, I picked up him up and settled him on my hip.
“You cool?” I asked him.
In response, he babbled something and swatted me on the cheek with his mitten.
We were cool.
I headed out the door and for a second as the cold air hit him, the kid got tense in my arms. As if he suddenly realized he was leaving his home without his mother.
“Dude, I’ve been cleaning up your shitty diapers for two days now. We’re not strangers anymore.”
Whether it was my words, my tone or just my general ease, the kid relaxed and we were off to Gert’s. I didn’t have a car seat so I could take him in my truck and I actually thought the fresh air might feel good to him after being stuck in a cabin that was ripe with sick.
The kid’s fever was gone, his appetite was back, and all signs pointed to a full recovery in a few days once he got his strength back.
His mother was having a harder time of it, which of course, pissed me off. I could get her to take aspirin to keep her fever from spiking and get some fluids in, but she hadn’t been awake long enough for me to feed her.
That was going to end today, even if I had force soup down her throat.
We made it in to town without anyone spotting us; however, I wasn’t so lucky at Gert’s. Zeke and Eve were there with Zeke Jr. And they were talking to Eli. As soon as the door closed behind me, they all stopped and stared at me.
“Vivienne and the kid were sick,” I said, lifting the kid higher up on my hip.
“How’s Vivienne?” Eli asked, walking toward me.
