I nod, letting him maneuver me. He sits beside me, propping me upright, and I lean my full weight against him. Not that I want to. It’s just that I’m positive I’ll slide back down if I try to stay like this on my own. That’s the only reason.
There’s a light shining from my left. From the lamp on the bedside table. That’s strange. It’s on.
“How is that working?”
“How is what working?” His arm’s still around me, but he’s turned away, messing with something on the nightstand.
“That light. How is that working? Did the power come back?”
“Yeah, yeah. It did.” He hands me a couple pills. “Mind taking these?”
“Sure.” I take the glass of water from him and swallow them dutifully.
He should be relieved I’m such a good patient. He was always such a baby when he was sick. Though it was kind of endearing.
“Done,” I say, handing the glass back to him. “And thanks,” I add on. “How long was I out for?”
He checks his phone. “Ten. Maybe twelve hours. But you’ve been up a couple times in between.” He glances at me. “Do you…do you remember any of that?”
“Not really.” I’m not even sure how I made it from the closet tothe bed. Well, except for the obvious answer. He must have carried me.
“Is it safe?” I ask, sudden alarm pounding through me. “Safe to be here? In the bed?”
“What do you…Oh, because of the storm? Yeah. We’re fine. Wind speeds are way down. It’s moving slow, weirdly kind of hovering over the area, but it’s been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. There’s some rain still, which isn’t helping the flood situation, but there’s no threat of windows breaking anymore.”
He places the back of his hand against my forehead and frowns. “You’re still warm. I thought maybe your fever had broken, but I think it’s still there. We’ll need to check it.”
“Okay.” If the storm’s slowed down, maybe that means flights will resume soon. I guess the flooding would have to go down first and I’m not sure how long that would take. Now that the power’s working, I should be able to find out.
I stretch my arms over my head, craning my neck from side to side. My muscles are so stiff. The movement feels amazing andhorrible at the same time. And…“Oh my god.” Giant, angry red welts cover my body. My arms. My legs. And from the itching, I think there’s one on the back of my neck.
“They’re better than before,” Nikhil says. “Believe it or not they’ve gone down in size.”
“Oh, I believe it.” I’ve had worse reactions to fire ants than this. I’ve had bites swell up to ten times their size, looking like balloons. I’ve just never had this many at once.
“I don’t know if that’s what made you sick,” he says. “I don’t remember you ever getting a fever from them before.”
“My body may not have known what to do with this many. Or maybe it was from being outside in the rain that long. Or something I caught on the plane.” I’d read once that the immune system is less effective in fighting off infection during periods of high stress. And god knows that my time here has been the most stressful of my life.
I lick my lips, tasting something strange on them.
“Vaseline,” Nikhil says. “Sorry. It’s just…your lips were chapped.”
“Oh. Thanks.” He’s still sitting close to me, his arm draped around my shoulders, his thigh touching mine. I shift just the tiniest bit and he’s gone, almost jumping off the bed.
“So, uhh, what else did I miss?”
Nikhil clears his throat. “TV’s working again so I caught up on some of the news. Water’s pretty high everywhere. And a lot of houses got flooded. They’ve set up some makeshift shelters around town.” He places something on the nightstand. “And I got this out of the guest bedroom for you.”
Ah, my horrible, broken-beyond-repair phone. The screen looks like a spiderweb, cracks shooting out in every direction. I bet it has water damage now too.
“I tried plugging it in,” he says, “but it wouldn’t turn on.”
I grimace. “Yeah. I think this thing is toast.”
Nikhil rubs his forehead, watching me for a second, and god, this feels so awkward. Him towering over me, while I’m still in bed. I want to snap to my feet. I want to stand eye to eye. I feel so small like this. So weak.
“Are you hungry?” he asks. “I tried to get you to eat something earlier, but you weren’t having it.” The right corner of his mouth climbs up. “You were pretty fussy.”