He headed to Ryder's room. He slowly opened the door and saw that he was sitting up coughing.
"Joe. I feel awful". Ryder said to Joey sounding worse than a few hours ago.
"I know. That's why I brought you this" Joey said and held up the medicine cup filled with Tylonel.
"Thank you" said Ryder.
It was 2:00. Lennox would be home shortly following Mel.
Joey told Ryder to go back to bed and try to sleep the sickness off so he did.
Joe walked downstairs to the kitchen as soon as Lennox was arriving home from school.
"Hey Joe, how's sick boy?" she asked.
"Not too good. He's got a pretty high fever" said Joey.
"Well, he better stay in bed. Far, far, far away from me" Lennox demanded.
Joey laughed and said, "Okay. Do you have any plans for this Friday night?"
"Of course, I always do" said Lennox.
"Well have fun. Your Aunt Mel should be home soon" said Joey.
"Does she know about Ryder? Did you tell her that you let him stay home?" asked Lennox.
"Yes I did. She was very concerned" said Joey.
Ryder walked down the steps into the kitchen.
In a hoarse voice, he spoke "Joe…I need tissues".
"Alright buddy. I'll get you some. Go back to your bed" said Joe.
Ryder was totally out of it. No one tried to pay much attention to what he was doing or saying.
He coughed continuously on his way up to his bedroom.
"Whoa, he looks terrible" said Lennox.
"Yeah, it's probably the flu. He can barely talk" said Joe.
"Thank God I am leaving for this weekend!" said Lennox happily.
"Well, I got to get these tissues up to your brother. We'll chat later" said Joey.