“I think I’m gonna puke.”
I jumped out of the seat and ran to our only bathroom, as bile burned up my throat. The idea of purging the source of all my distress this morning wasn’t a bad one.
“I’ve got a hair tie!” Piper’s voice broke through the chaos while I fell to my knees and thick vomit shot out of my mouth.
No one liked to puke, but I was eager to get this crap out of me.
Between hacks, I tried to push Piper away. She’d be extra susceptible to stomach bugs with her IBS. The last thing I wanted was to pass the ick to my daughter.
She ignored me and promised to help clean up if we both ended up with it coming out both ends. At least when I become an old lady one day, I’ll be confident in her ability to take care of me.
But, again, for her sake, I’d hoped it was only food poisoning and not a bug.
At least a minute later, I rested my head on the cool toilet seat, gasping for air, while my sweet eighteen-year-old pulled back my long brown hair. She then rubbed my back in soothing motions. Did I mention she was my favorite person ever?
“I feel better,” I croaked, not exactly sounding better. I sat up and paused, my fingers hovering over the flush button. I expected to see tea colored vomit and remnants of a muffin I ate this morning. However, the contents in the bowl were not that.
“Why did you eat daisies and purple glitter?”
So, Iwasn’thallucinating this time…
“I didn’t. What the fuck is happening?” I scrambled back, unfortunately taking Piper out at the legs.
I wasn’t crazy. There was clearly something growing inside of me. It was pretty, too, which somehow made it worse. Puke wasn’t supposed to be pretty! I shakily made it to my feet, unable to pull my stare from the toilet bowl.
“Something is wrong.” The tremble in my voice had nothing to do with being zapped from the sickness. It was fear. Maybe I should go to the hospital. Piper’s fatherdidpoison me, that moron!
The tips of my hands burned, as if I needed any more symptoms, and suddenly fiery blue sparks flew out of my normal human fingers.
Fiery. Blue.Sparks.
This wasn’t happening.
Nope.
“Mom!” Piper shouted at the same moment our phones blared an alert.
On top of me dying, we now had an emergency on our hands?
That tracked for my life. Moms couldn’t ever just be sick. They had to be sickandtake care of a crabby, fever-addled toddler with a nasty infection in both ears. Or they were sick andstillhad to drag their puny selves to a bank that prided themselves on attendance and no regard for contagions. They could have fiery, blue sparking hands and glittery daisy puke, but wouldstillhave to pull themselves together anyway.
“Holy shit!” Piper cried out which jerked me from my rambling thoughts. “Uh, I’ll call help!”
While she scrambled to grab a phone, I turned on the faucet and shoved my sparking hands under the cool water. They hissed upon contact, but thankfully the water doused them out.
Sweat coated my pale face, and my stomach twisted in knots.Again.Green eyes stared at me in the mirror, and despite knowing those eyes, everything felt unfamiliar. The dusting of freckles over my nose had been there since childhood. The dark, wavy hair tied back in ponytail wasn’t new. I looked the same, but something had changed on the inside.
Something big.
Catastrophic.
Life-changing.
“It’s the government.” Piper’s voice shook. “They say to turn on the news. I’ve got it on. Need you in here.”
The strangled tone in her words needled its way past my shock and activated Mom Mode.
“Come on, Temperance. Get it together.”
