SWNOVELS Chapter Mates 20
Chapter 20
1208 Vouchers Chapter 20
FREDA WHITLOCK
"Hey," Lyra said, pulling her hair up in a ponytail as she walked into the kitchen. I was making waffles. Well, I was trying to. I could not focus for the life of me. I felt... Dead. And that did not make sense because I was alive.
Maybe my chest was dead. In the aftermath of the Category Five tornado.
When Lyra got no response from me, she looked at me with worried eyes and tapped my shoulder. "Go take care of Cisco. I'll take care of breakfast," she said and I said nothing in response.
I stepped out of the kitchen and headed to Francisco's room. He wasn't in his bed. My heart s**d out of my chest and trepidation gripped me. I started to fear the worst and my heart started beating at a million miles per hour.
"Francisco?" I called his name, and the tremor in my voice did not escape my ears.
"I'm in here," he responded in his small, sweet voice. Relief coursed through me in unbelievable waves and I took in several breaths to calm myself before I walked into the bathroom that was built into the
room.
I did not want my anxiety to infect him in any way.
"Where are you?" I asked with a soft laugh and he responded with a giggle. I pulled the nylon curtains in front of the bath back
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and I found him sitting in the tub. It was filled and he was coated in bubbles and lather.
I laughed out loud.
"Oh Cisco, what have you done?" asked and he giggled. "I wanted to take a bath and you weren't coming yet," he responded most innocently. My heart melted in my chest and all I wanted to do was grab him and bathe his whole face with kisses.
He was the most adorable creature in the world, and he was mine: My son.
I smiled and pulled up my hair in a ponytail. "Come on. Let's run you a fresh bath, yeah?" I said, reaching into the tub to lift him. out of the water. He nodded and raised his hands, reaching for
me.
I stuck my hand into the water... Well, I had thought it was water. It wasn't.
Half the tub was filled with bubbles and soap lather, the other half the lower one -was water.
Oh my goodness.
I laughed at how ridiculous it was. Just how much soap had he poured into the bathtub?
I was not willing to find out.
I wiped his hair out of his face and kissed his forehead. He wrapped his arms and legs around me and kissed my cheek.
He had successfully wet my clothes, but I did not mind.
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Chapter 20
Especially not when I was terrified a few minutes ago that someone had taken my son away from me.
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I decided to wash the remaining soap lather off of him in the shower. As I targeted the jets of water shooting out of the shower head towards him to wash the soap lather off, I told him how dangerous it was to run a bath for himself.
"You're still a little sweetie. You could drown, or slip and hurt yourself and also hurt me," I told him and he wiped the droplets of water coming from his hair to his face with his little hands. "What does it mean to drown?" He asked innocently and I dreaded having to explain what it was to him.
"When a person can't swim, they start drinking lots of water, and when they drink lots of water, they can't breathe," I explained it in the mildest manner possible.
"Oh..." He looked thoughtful for a moment. I lovingly caressed his cheeks and he smiled at me before speaking again with a face that looked almost too serious for a five-year-old.
"I have two questions," he said and I nodded immediately.
I was always going to entertain his curiosity with patience. He was just a child after all. "What happens when a person can't breathe?" He asked and once again, I dreaded having to explain what death was to him.
"They stop being like you and me. They go into a deep sleep, and they may never wake up again," I explained as mildly as possible. He blinked and then nodded. I was done washing the soap off of him. I lifted him out of the shower and placed him on top of the
Chapter 20
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counter. I grabbed his soft towel from the place where it was hung and dried off his hair. I dried down his body with a second. towel and that was when he started speaking again..
"How can I hurt you if I fall and hurt myself?" He asked, his eyes wide with childish curiosity. I smiled and kissed his forehead before lifting him in my arms and heading towards the room.
"Because... If you hurt yourself, you're hurting me too. You mean the world to me and it would hurt to see you get hurt." It was not easy to give an appropriate explanation to this question of his either. I could not possibly explain the depth of love I felt for him, and why it would hurt me to see him hurt.
But I had done my best, and it seemed like I had done well because he gave me a satisfied smile and then nodded. The questions were over for now.
"Okay, Mommy. I won't run baths on my own again," he promised I pulled his shirt- the last piece of clothing -over his head.
"Breakfast is ready!" I heard Lyra call and I liked down at Francisco. "Come on," I said and he nodded, eagerly jumping down from his bed and reaching for my hand.
I took him and we headed for the dining table. I lifted him into his special seat and cut up his pancakes and fruit into smaller pieces before handing them to him. "Thank you," he politely said and I nodded. "I'll go get Dad," Lyra said, heading towards the room area. I looked down at my food and decided to wait for Dad and Lyra before digging in. I lived with my family and I loved my baby.
All it took for me to calm down was to have a heartfelt conversation with my baby and listen to him talk... Because my pain, anxiety, stress, anger and sadness had vanished.