Hidden In Plain Sight

Sebastian was slower than normal. He was still cleaning like always, but his movements seemed long and lethargic, like he had chains weighing down on his arms, and sometimes he would pause and stare in front of him, a foggy daze clouding his normally sharp eyes. Alicia was sure that if they played hide and seek right now, he wouldn’t be able to find her, which never happened when they played.

His voice was hoarse and scratchy, and it sounded like he had cotton in his throat every time he spoke to her. His nose looked red and she could hear him sniffing when he thought she couldn’t hear. Something was wrong.

She let out a disgruntled grumble as her hands gripped the book she held in front of her harder. Sebastian had sent her up to read while he cleaned so that she wouldn’t get in his way, but now the inky animals on the page just stared up at her mockingly.

Tossing down the book, she stuck her tongue out at the black text. She was going to figure out what was wrong with Sebastian no matter what. His cleaning could wait.

She made her way down the stairs slowly and started to look for the suited man, but she couldn’t find him anywhere. It was like he had disappeared. She was starting to get scared when she made her way into the living room.

That was the first time she saw him asleep.

He was lying on his side on the couch, the brown strands of his hair falling away from their places on his head as they splayed across his forehead. She could see the steady rise and fall of his chest as his eyebrows creased together uncomfortably. He was asleep, but he didn’t look at all peaceful.

Walking forward a bit, she looked at him, unsure of what to do before she pressed her hand to his forehead. It was hot, too hot

He’s sick. Alicia registered, pulling her hand away quickly. What does she do now? Should she wake him up? She remembered when she had last gotten sick. He had put her in her bed with her blankets and stuffies and told her she needed to rest. He had put a cold towel on her forehead and made her soup for lunch. He hadn’t even gotten mad when she wouldn’t stop crying ’cause her throat hurt. He needed to rest then.

She gave a small nod to the air. He didn’t look very comfortable there though… she felt her eyebrows scrunch together as she pouted a bit, cocking her head to the side as she looked at his scrunched-up form on the couch. She couldn’t move him without waking him up but-

A smile spread across her face as she scampered out of the living room again. Crawling up the stairs, she grabbed her brown blanket and favorite bunny plush. He was old, his fur was getting rough in places and his ear even had a chunk missing from where it had torn on a nail and Sebastian had to fix him. But she still loved him more than any of the other cute bears or fluffy puppies that were always replaced as they got old or torn ’cause her mother had given it to her. She’d told her that they should be friends since they were both so cute and ever since then he’d been her best and only friend. Well, other than Sebastian of course.

Tossing the brown blanket onto him, she settled her bunny carefully against his chest so that it wouldn’t fall over. Stepping back to look at her work, she quickly noticed that the blanket was too small on him, only covering a part of his torso. Alicia thought about running upstairs to get more blankets, but the others were too big for her to carry down the stairs. She had almost tripped just carrying bunny and the blanket.

Looking at him, he still seemed uncomfortable despite the blanket. Stepping forward, she pressed her hand to his forehead, smushing out the crease between his eyebrows manually. He looked peaceful for a second before he shifted in his sleep and was back to his discomfort.

What was she forgetting? She had the stuffies, and the blanket- the cold towel! She smacked her head lightly as she spun around in the room looking for something to use. Spotting the linen on the table Sebastian had been no doubt folding before he fell asleep, she made her way over to one of the chairs. Grabbing onto one of the chairs, she heaved with all her might to pull her top half onto the seat. After a few failed attempts, she finally succeeded, flailing her legs behind her in the air to help inch her the rest of the way up.

Pushing herself to her feet on the chair, she quickly grabbed one of the smaller washcloths that was near the edge of the table. Now to get down. Pushing herself back down to her butt, she dangled her legs over the edge of the chair. Washcloth still held tightly in hand, she pressed the rest of herself off the chair, falling to the floor on her feet before immediately falling to her butt again as the momentum of her fall kept carrying her.

Righting herself quickly, she brushed the dust off her dress. Running to the bathroom, she pushed herself onto a wooden box Sebastian had gotten her so that she could reach the sink. Turning the tap, she shoved the towel under the cold water, shivering a bit as it splashed over her hands. Squishing the now wet towel in her hands, she let the excess water drip away until it was no longer dripping wet in her hands.

Making her way back to the living room, she pressed the cold towel to Sebastian’s forehead, making sure it was stuck before she pulled her hand away. She could see him visibly shiver for a moment before his face finally relaxed and he looked much more comfortable

Alicia threw her hands up in the air in brief celebration, a small giggle escaping her before she remembered that she had to be quiet.

Now the soup. She pressed her hands together in a clapping motion.

Making her way into the kitchen, she quickly ran into a problem. She couldn’t reach the stove. She looked up dumbly at the tall counter for a while. She couldn’t cook anything if she couldn’t reach the counter.

After standing there for a while, an idea finally popped into her head and she let out a sound of recognition as she ran off. Her step stool in the bathroom was too short, but a chair wasn’t. Wrapping her arms around one of the legs of a chair, she gave a strong tug. The chair shifted forward an inch in response. Maybe this would be harder than she’d thought.

Painstakingly she tugged the chair over to the kitchen inch by inch, switching between tugging and pushing and even trying to drag it by its seat. Her arms were aching by the time she had got it to the kitchen, but she’d made it.

She let out a soft mumble as she shook out her arms uncomfortably in front of her. Why couldn’t she be big like Sebastian already?

Heaving herself onto the chair again, she took a look across the countertop. An empty pot was already set out on the stove and she could see the ingredients Sebastian had set out for lunch next to a small stack of bowls on the counter to the right of the stove. It looked like he was going to make soup for lunch anyways.

Standing on her tippy toes, she could just barely see over the rim of the pot. Good. She was ready.

Grabbing onto the rim of the pot, she dragged it over to the sink, wincing when it fell in with a loud clatter. She jolted a bit, waiting for a noise telling she had woken Sebastian up, but when no such noise came from the living room, she let out her breath. She had to be more careful.

Turning the faucet, she watched as the pot filled up, stopping when the pot was a third filled with the clear liquid. Taking a deep breath, she braced her hands on the sides of the pot, letting out a low keen as she pulled the pot from the sink, setting it down on the counter with a clank.

The pot scraped along the counter as she pulled it onto the stove, turning on the fire so that it could start to heat up.

Stepping to the edge of her chair, she leaned over the counter to grab the ingredients that Sebastian had set out, some tomatoes, lettuce, onion, and a carrot. She had to graze her fingers over the edge of the last tomato to get it to roll into her grasp, but she managed to get all of the vegetables.

Holding all the vegetables in her cupped arms, she looked around her for a moment. What now? Looking at the sink, she remembered Sebastian cleaning everything before he put it in the pot when she had watched him make soup before. Yeah, she should do that.

Dumping the vegetables in the sink, she let the water run over them. Rolling them around with her hand, she deemed them clean enough and turned off the water with a nod. Leaving the vegetables stored in the sink, she turned back to the pot again

Grabbing onto the edge of the pot, she intended to look over the rim to see if the water was hot enough, but the metal seared into her hand as she grabbed onto it. Ripping her hand off, she stumbled back, almost falling off the edge of her chair as she flailed her arms to stay up.

She felt tears well up in her eyes as she nursed her burned hand, pulling it close to her chest. It felt like hundreds of needles were stabbing into her skin, and she felt a sob build in her chest, but she swallowed it shakily. If she started crying now she would surely wake up Sebastian.

Instead she opted to press the burn up against her mouth, hoping her cool saliva would soothe it. It helped somewhat, but her hand still felt twitchy and tingly when she pulled it away. Looking down at it, she could see the crescent burn stretch across her hand from where she had grabbed the pot. Wiping her hand off on her dress, she whined as the burn ached at the movement.

Rubbing the tears out of her eyes with her uninjured hand, she turned back to the vegetables still sitting in the sink. She grabbed the tomato closest to her, bringing it to hold in front of her. She surely wasn’t supposed to put this in whole was she? The soup Sebastian always gave her had small slices of carrots and other vegetables that he had put in there. She should do that

Pulling at the tomato in her hand, she let out a small squeak as juice started to dribble down it, splattering onto her dress. She quickly held the food away from her before more damage could be done. She should do this over the pot.

Squishing the tomato again she watched as the red liquid dribbled down into the water. She ripped at the red circle more, tearing away small pieces of the skin and tossing them into the pot as well. Once there was nothing left, she dropped what was left of the food into the pot as well, reaching over to the sink to repeat the process with another tomato.

She came across a problem when she tried to break up the carrot, the squishing and pulling doing nothing to the orange food. Moving the orange stick closer to her, she pulled down roughly on both ends, letting out a small noise of struggle till it snapped, sending her stumbling back a step. She looked at the two ends of the carrot with satisfaction as she dropped them into the pot. The lettuce was much easier, she thought as she ripped the green leaves to small shreds before she dropped them into the pot and she tore apart the onion after a moment of struggle.

She heated the water and put all the food in. What did Sebastian do after that? Stir, right. She looked around for the wooden spoon Sebastian always cooked with, humming when she found it next to the wooden bowls on the counter and pulling them both closer to her, she dunked the end of the spoon into the pot, turning it around a few times. Standing on her tippy toes, she was careful not to touch the metal of the pot as she looked over the edge at her soup.

It was a patchy red and she could see the bits of lettuce and onion floating along the surface along with a half of the carrot that she had put in. The other half must have sunk to the bottom, she reasoned, giving the spoon a few more turns.

After a while, her hand got sore and tired and she took that as a sign that it was done. Grabbing the bowls, she spooned the red fluid into them carefully, though she was sure that some had escaped her and splattered onto the floor beneath her. She made sure that Sebastian’s was extra full since he was bigger, and that he got the larger carrot half.

Dropping the wooden spoon onto the counter, she came across her next problem: getting down from the chair. If she jumped, she would just fall and spill the soup everywhere. Setting the soup down on the counter again, she jumped down from the chair by herself, falling to the ground with a small thud as she ran off to the bathroom.

Placing her step stool next to the chair, she took a step back to look at her makeshift staircase. Climbing up again, she grabbed the two bowls again as she made her way tediously down, trying her best not to spill any off the soup.

Once down she scurried back to the living room again, the two wooden bowls held tightly in hand. Placing Sebastian’s bowl on the coffee table for when he woke up, she climbed into the plush chair on the other side of the table, letting her legs lay out in front of her as she put her bowl down on her lap.

It didn’t look nearly as good as what Sebastian would make her, but she was getting really hungry so she just picked up her spoon. Her hand reminded her painfully of the burn she was nursing as it curled around the cool metal, and she could feel her hand trembling a bit as she lifted a bite of the soup. It was really bitter. Did she do something wrong? She did everything Sebastian did. Lifting another bite to her lips, she stopped as she heard a soft groan.

Leaving the spoon hovering in the air, she turned to look at Sebastian as he woke up, pressing himself up on his elbow. Bunny was knocked to the ground as he lifted a hand to his forehead, feeling the cloth before he looked over at her sitting in her seat with surprised eyes.