Disclaimer; I don't own TMNT!
Chapter 10: All Medicines Are Poison.
We didn't have the money we needed, and no time to try to earn it. Flu didn't usually kill, but it could. I knew that, it was the reason flu shots were such a big deal. People had to go to the hospital sometimes, if they kept throwing up all their fluids they got dehydrated. I couldn't take Splinter or Raph and Mikey to a hospital though, and I didn't have an IV.
No IV, no money, no medicine. Man this day just keeps getting better and better!
Stealth lessons came in pretty damn handy. I was on a rooftop, my heart bouncing up and down my throat every time I leapt over air, but I kept moving. Stayed in the shadows even. I just had to find an open bathroom window. I had to find a medicine cabinet.
I couldn't take everything from one place though, those people might need the medicine too. So even when I took some tums from one building I was already running for another. When I had everything I could get, I returned to the burrow.
"Mom!" Don cried when he saw me. He was just outside the door, dumping out one of the buckets. I remembered the thing about the IV and hoped the medicine would help.
"I brought medicine." I told Splinter, handing him a glass of water and helping him sit up. Leo was helping Mikey and Don was trying to wake up Raph.
"Thank you." He coughed. I winced at how long the fit lasted. He was puffing by the time it stopped. There wasn't anything I could do about it, save pound his back a couple times and hand him a couple pills.
It's hard to watch your children sick and trembling, and completely unable to get them the help they deserved. After a couple days Leo fell sick, and then it was just me and Don.
I went to get more medicine a couple times, and I helped master Splinter and the boys try to keep it down when I got home. It seemed to me like nothing could possibly make this any worse, unless Don or I got sick too. Then again I pride myself on having a good immune system, and I do try to stay clean and warm.
It was too early in spring, the water had been too cold. The boys were cold blooded of course they'd get sick! Splinter was old too, he might not have gotten sick if he'd been younger. And the flur was contagious, the boys had never been sick before, their immune systems weren't able to fight it off as well.
So I had to work at least twice as hard to do the things that needed doing. I spent the last of our money on cans of soup, I raided more bathrooms for pills, and when I could I tried to practice, tried not to fall apart completely when my family needed me.
Don was a very good helper. He could help so much by cleaning out the buckets and giving them water while I was gone. Then when I was here he slept like the dead until a particularly loud moan would rouse him.
"Mom, when will they get better?" He asked me, restraining himself from yawning. There were dark bruises under his eyes to show the lack of sleep. I wanted to pick him up like he was a recently mutated toddler again.
"I don't know Donnie." I sighed, patting the spot next to me on the couch. He didn't waste a moment before climbing up beside me.
"I've been thinking," He started, stopped. I watched as he bit his lip, like he was trying to figure out the likelihood of me laughing at him for whatever he said next.
And he had been thinking. About just about anything that crossed his fancy. I guess when the body was busy emptying buckets and filling cups of water the mind had plenty of time to wander. I said once that Don was a genius, or maybe I've mentioned it a lot more, but nothing had really come of it.
Then he began asking me questions. Nothing warranting a talk of the birds and bees, but nothing much easier unfortunately. I explained as best I could about why we couldn't take our family to a hospital like in the cartoons he watched, why being so sick was such a bad thing. He asked me about dehydration and hygeine. Especially hygeine.
I admit, Splinter and I were pretty slack about that. I mean, we didn't even have toothbrushes. Honestly I had lost mine a long time ago, and the boys were turtles, I knew they had teeth, it just sort of slipped my mind that they needed to be brushed too.
I make a horrible mother. Baths aren't too good either, the shower is cold so we don't usually stay in any longer than it takes to get off the first layer of dirt and wash hair. Which, admittedly for Splinter, takes a while. He has a lot of hair.
Slowly, one by one they got over the flu. The boys bounced back and were running around and yelling while Splinter was still confined to bed. He was better, much better than the first few days, but he still coughed and felt way too warm. I have to tell you, it was murder getting them to be quiet and let him rest.
Don's many questions had led me to look for things I normally didn't. I still didn't have any money, so toothbrushes and such were still out, but there were things I could get. You know, if I was creative. And if there's one thing, anything, I'm good at, it's being creative.
The soaps that the hotels leave for you in bathrooms? Those cutesy ones that are shaped like sea shells? I gathered up a whole bushel of them, still unwrapped, very easily.
See, all I had to do was wear dark clothes, that at first glance looked like the uniform, and walk through the employee door. There I walked down the hall until I found a supply closet. Inside, clean towels, soap, tiny shampoos, and best of all, toothbrushes and paste.
It was like christmas had come early. I gathered them up and then walked into a door that had been left open. No guests or anything, but I didn't pause long enough to be caught. I just went straight to the window and clambered out. On the roof I bagged them into my backpack, brought along for the ride, and continued my mission.
I put on my red cap and a stained jean jacket when I entered my next stop. It was a small time repair shop that sold spare parts. There was also this place in the corner that had a bunch of broken things that couldn't be fixed, or had been fixed but no one had come to pick up.
"Hey buddy, what'cha going to do with that stuff on the table?" I asked one burly guy. He had oil up to his elbows from working on a car, it was cherry red but that's all I could tell of it. I was never a fan of cars. Can't drive anyway.
"Hmm? You can take anything with a yellow tag on it, that's getting thrown away at the end of the week." He mumbled, looking at where I was pointing. There were a lot of yellow tags.
There was this old car, not a real one but a toy, that definitely looked like it had seen better days. It was missing all it's doors and a back wheel, along with the hood. I picked it up and slid it into the bag, along with a model bike with tires about the same size. Then came other nuts and bolts of the sort.
Finding tools was harder, but I managed after a couple of days. Two screwdrivers, different kinds. One with a flat head and one with that little X design thing. A canister of some tiny screws, a hammer, and some wires. Electrical tape wasn't found, alas, but I did not lose hope.
Don's face lit up like the fourth of july when I unveiling my presents. I had bits and parts of other things too, anything technology-ish that I thought he could amuse himself by tinkering with. I wish I could've gotten him some actual books on the subject, but I had to make do and I tried to be sure he didn't do anything dangerous without me around.
Splinter continued regaining strength, and it seemed my little vacation from training would be over and done with. I panicked at that, afraid he would accuse me of slacking off, which I had. I threw myself into training as much as I could, blindfolded even. There's just something about a disappointed teacher that has always rubbed me wrong.
His fever broke and his cough spluttered and finally died. By now all the boys were brimming with health and looking forward to having their father around again.
I hadn't played favorites with Don, in case it came off like that. I got things for the others too. It just took a lot longer.
They all had things that they liked to do, and from watching them I did my best to cater to those things. Take my baby, Mikey, for instance. It had taken him the longest to catch on to reading and writing, but once he had it, he ran with it. He loved story time the best, and was always begging for more. Story books wound up on the street a lot, and a trip to the dump helped me locate a good number of pencils and pens that still had ink.
"Ah, welcome back young Leola." Professor was one of the homeless guys living in a shanty town there. I had once thought of staying here, plenty of homeless did, but I haven't regretted my decision. Besides, they all stank to high heavens and a good amount of them did drugs. Sometimes, I even had to wonder about the professor. Even though he was one of the only humans I interacted with these days.
"Hey professor, how are things?" I wave and jog over. Everyone here except the professor is usually high, and I can almost smell the pot in the air, so I figure it's safe to let my tail hang free. My ears are out and the wind blows them all around.
"Very good lately, although I theorize that I will grow fat from eating all these cakes alone." His eyes twinkled as he showed me a box of donuts. It was already half empty and I could tell they were stale, but I before I could turn them down, they needed it more than me, he shoved the box into my hands.
"I am sure your sons would love a treat." I smiled and shook my head, accepting it and putting the box under one arm. He knew I had sons, and that I lived with someone who helped take care of them, but he didn't know that they were turtles or the man a rat. Sometimes I wanted to introduce him to Splinter, I think they'd like eachother and Professor never stared at my tail.
"Thank you, professor." I'm sure he has a name. Everyone has a name, even the homeless. It's just that he doesn't tell anyone. His moniker, Professor, came about from his numberless theories.
"Professor, I don't suppose you'd know where I could find paper, do you?" I ask. Searching the dump takes a long time, and the moon is starting to sink. It's early, rather than late.
"Newspapers?" He askes. I shake my head, explaining that I need more paper for my sons to write on.
"Paper, I cannot help with. However, I did notice some old computers in a far corner." I didn't know what he was thinking I could do with broken computers, but I followed anyway.
"Here is a little booklet that tells what all the pieces do." I was stunned. Not an hour later and I was loading down the wagon with computer parts, a monitor, a harddrive thing, a tower, and other miscellaneous pieces that I had no idea what to do with. And finally he finishes off the night by giving me a 'booklet' that tells what all the parts are.
"Um, thank you!" I stammer. You could've knocked me down, for all my training, with a feather. I had no idea what to do with all these, and I thought myself pretty well educated. You know, for a drop out.
"Not at all Leola, I'm sure your sons will be able to type on this quite well." If we got it working. All I knew about computers were the on button and making a password. I didn't usually use one except for school, how was I to be expected to fix one? And Donnie was a genius, but he was still a kid!
Evidently a kid with far too much time on his hands though. He devoured the book, putting pieces next to each other to compare them and tinkering with the little wires.
I had found some paper with clean sides, and I happily let Mikey write story after story. Some newly dried out construction paper and markers let Leo explore his inner artist. And a walkman that had been abandoned in the park gave Raphie a whole new world of music. Lost and founds are awesome!
Donnie was the one who began to shine though. Always the quietest of his brothers, the most logical, the smartest, but now he really began to stand out. He had fixed the car to run again, although it was still missing doors and a hood, and now he worked steadily on the computer.
Splinter was up again and we began training together. I had missed our spars, but not landing on my face. That part I could do without. Alas, twas not meant to be.
March turned to April, and then May, and we were getting set to try swimming again. Don completed the computer, and after the first week of the boys taking turns and fighting over how long they got to be on it, he began helping with other things.
One of the worse things about our burrow was the heater. We didn't know how to turn it off. So we were grateful during winter, but when spring and summer began creeping up on us I would sweat and mentally curse the humming machine. Cold showers became a sweet release, and that's when Don began tinkering with it, as he had the computer before it.
When he began work by turning it into a boiler, I admit I played favorites a bit. I whooped and gave him an extra donut or some other treat, and bragged about my genius son. I was so proud of him and what he was learning to do. I didn't notice how my other sons began to mistake a bit of praise, for shoving all my love onto just one boy.
"Come on Brainiac! It's not fair!" Splinter was out foraging for food for the day. We were running low and my acts didn't bring in enough money to get everything we needed. I heard Raph's yell and the nickname that Don hard garnered and sighed. This was the third blowout today, and not just from Raph. Leo and Mikey had their share too.
Normally I'm of the opinion that unless they start fighting, it's okay to hang back. I let them argue it out and if it gets bad I step in and enforce apologies and time outs. My ears trained on them over the sound of me washing the dishes. I hadn't had to step in yet, but I was starting to wonder why everyone was ganging on him today.
"Raph, I have my own chores! Do your own!" I heard Don reply. He sounded very frustrated. I knew he too must be wondering whether or not it was national Gang On Donnie Day. I put down the dish I had just rinsed and dried my hands.
"You think you're so much better just cause Ma likes the shower? Well you're not!" I was shocked. I didn't think they minded my rewarding Don a bit. I hardly ever got to before because he was so quiet, it was the first time he had ever excelled at something and I wanted to encourage it.
I listened to music with Raph, I pinned Leo's drawings on the fridge, and I had even begun reading Mike's stories at bedtime. I had given them treats too, I thought I'd been fair.
"I don't!" I winced as I heard Don's voice crack. He didn't cry as often as Mikey did, but he was still a sensative little guy. In contrast Leo and Raph hardly ever so much as sniffled. I started to walk to the door, thinking I had better nip this in the bud.
"Just go away!" I heard Raph yell. Then I heard running feet and the front door open and close. They knew how to find their way home again, but I still didn't like them going off alone. I rounded on my second Son.
"Raphael." He jumped at the sound of his full name. Splinter usually stuck to full names, so normally you had to pay closer attention to how he said it if you wanted to tell if the kids were in trouble. I was easier. I just went full name or bust.
"Uh, yeah Ma?" He gulped, turning around. He looked like he wished he could still pull his head into his shell.
"You know better than to tell your brothers to go away Raphael." I stated, trying not to be too angry. I had to go and make sure Don didn't get hurt or see if he just needed a hug.
"But, he's always showing off." I heard him grumble. Before I could get to Don though, I owed one of my sons an apology of my own.
"Raph, I love you. I love all of you, not just Don." I told him, pulling him close so I could get in a hug. He wasn't much for mushy stuff, but it wasn't hard to cuddle him a bit. He humored me.
"I know, but-! It makes me so mad when he shows us up!" There was a temper in him, that was clear. Still, I had to make a few things clear.
"Raph, you're good at being strong and you like music, right?" He nodded, not sure where I was going with this. Truth be told, neither did I.
"Well, Don is good at learning things, and he likes machines. You don't practice on the punching bag just to make someone else happy, you do it because you like to, right?" Another nod, more sure of himself this time.
"Well, Don is happy when he's tinkering." He slumped, but I think he understood where I was going.
"Leo, Mikey, and Don don't get mad when you're stronger. So you shouldn't get mad when Don's smarter, or Mikey's faster, or that Leo draws better." I let him out of my hug but I kept my hands on his shoulders.
"But, I do get mad." He complained. I knew that too. He always had been the most agressive turtle. I sighed and held back the urge to bluntly explain why it wasn't right to take his anger out on others, that he'd eventually get a taste of his own medicine. At the time though, I was well and truly sick of pills.