Chapter 10: Black and Blue

I woke when Luna decided to walk over me on her way off the bed. The side of my belly felt warm where she’d been resting against me. She’d started up near my shoulder, but apparently that wasn’t comfortable enough for her. There was morning light filtering through the curtains. This was nice. Waking up with a clear head and able to lie there, wrapped in a warm and cozy doona. Not that this never happened at home, but when it did happen I tried to make sure to enjoy it. The soft interplay of shadows on the ceiling entertained me while I lay there, as snug as a bug in a rug.

Jenny lay nearby, her breathing soft and easy. But then it caught. She coughed, a rough, wet, gurgling type of cough. I knew what that meant. I leapt into action, sliding across the bed and dragging Jenny’s top half with me so that she ended up face down off the side of her bed. She was heaving and choking and I only just had time to reposition the rubbish bin under her face and pull her hair out of the way before she started hurling with enormous power.

“That’s the way,” I said. “Get it all out.”

I re-positioned my hands to get a better grip on her hair and then stroked her shoulder. She was coughing and spitting and groaning.

“There’s more to come. Let it come.”

I felt wriggling underneath me as the legs I was lying across tried to move. That would be Freddy. I tried to ease my weight off his legs and felt them shift under me as Freddy wormed his way out from underneath us and sat himself up in bed. Jenny was lying all the way across him, so it wasn’t easy for him to move. He eventually got to the point where he was sitting up, with Jenny lying across his lap.

Jenny threw up some more, but there was less volume and less power this time.

“Freddy, take over holding her hair. Nothing fancy, just keep it back off her face. That’s the way. I’ll try to find a hair tie or something to make it easier.”

Freddy sat there and held onto Jenny’s hair with one hand while he stroked his hand down her back with the other.

“That’s the way, buddy. Holding a girl’s hair back for her while she throws up is a huge green flag. Do this for a girl and she’ll know you’re a keeper.”

I rolled off the bed and went to the dresser, hunting for a hair clip or a hair band of some description. I found a couple of hair ties which would do the job. Back to Jenny, I gathered her hair together down the back of her head and used the ties to form a rough bun. Then I darted into the bathroom. The two washcloths we’d used earlier were still sitting by the sink, but I didn’t want to use those. Fortunately, there was one last clean washcloth. I wet it and rung out the excess water. There were a couple of glasses sitting there, so I grabbed one and half-filled it with water. I also spotted an empty rubbish bin with a plastic liner sitting under the sink, so I grabbed that as well.

Hands now full, I went back to the bedroom. The room stunk of vomit. Freddy held the water and the cloth for me as I got Jenny sitting up and leaning against the headboard. I wiped down Jenny’s face and then handed her the glass of water.

“Sip, swill, spit,” I said, holding the new bin ready.

“Take a sip of water, swill it around your mouth, spit it out. It will help get rid of the taste.”

Jenny did that and then did it again. Her eyes had been partially closed throughout all of that and appeared glazed. She leaned back against the headboard, fully closed her eyes and groaned.

I handed the partially empty glass to Freddy. “When she’s ready, get her to drink some of that.”

Grabbing the two rubbish bins and the cloth, I headed back into the bathroom. I tipped as much of the contents of the bins as I could into the toilet and flushed. The badly soiled plastic liner got tied off into a knot and dropped into the other bin. That liner got tied into a knot. I’d learned the hard way to always double-bag a bag full of vomit. I grabbed a couple of new plastic liners from a drawer and threw into place, not taking any time to place them properly. That could be done later.

I rinsed out the washcloth and re-wet it with hot water. After wringing out the excess, I took the hot washcloth back into the bedroom and handed it to Freddy.