Chapter 19: Night Time Blues
Dogs bark and howl in the distance. They are so far away that a human wouldn't be able to hear them, but I do. My super vampire hearing allows me to hear things that humans can't.
I usually like my super vampire hearing but I don't tonight. Not when I am supposed to be sleeping and the dogs that are very far away keep barking. I lay in my bed feeling very cold, even though I'm under my blankets. I lay here in the dark with my eyes closed trying to go back to sleep. Sleep does not come and I feel even colder than I did a second ago. I pull my blankets up to my chin, trying to get warm but that doesn't help much, I keep getting colder.
Seconds pass and now I'm freezing. Curled up into a ball I listen to the night time noises as I roll over onto my other side. I want to be warm as I usually am and go back to sleep. I don't know why the barking dogs had to wake me up. Shivering, I pull my blankets closer to me. I don't feel any warmer though.
Wind whistles in the night as the dogs I hear keep barking. They sound like they are running around, maybe playing in the snow. Trees shake and move with the wind, I hear their leaves rustle against each other. Suddenly a tree branch taps at my window. That noise makes me feel a little afraid. Keeping my eyes closed, I reach around my bed for my teddy bear. My hand feels around my pillow while I hear the noise from the TV that's on in my parents room. I finally find what I am looking for on top of my pillow, my pink teddy bear. This teddy bear is fuzzy and very soft and really special to me. She always makes me feel better when I'm scared or don't feel good, like right now. I have had my bear ever since I can remember, Grandma gave it to me a few days after I was born.
Hugging my teddy bear, my tummy starts to feel funny. It doesn't feel good at all. As soon as I open my eyes my tummy twists, turns and does a giant flop. My tummy hurts really bad. I quickly let go of my teddy bear and my hand flies up to cover my mouth.
With my hand over my mouth I jump out of bed, run past my stuffed giant unicorn that's in the middle of my floor, through my room and quickly run down the hall to the bathroom. Wasting no time I go over to the toilet, open it up and throw up.
When I am done I feel very cold and my tummy hurts even though it's empty now. As slow as a banana slug I get up from the floor and go to the sink. Rising my mouth with water I look in the mirror at my tear stained face. I don't look or feel very good. I blame the pizza that I had to eat at Chuck-E-Cheese. Human food never makes my tummy feel very well but I don't usually feel this bad.
I feel as cold as a lizard in an aquarium without a heat lamp. My tummy feels horrible and I want my mommy and daddy. I wonder why Daddy hasn't heard my thoughts yet? I thought for sure he would come to check on me.
Walking out of the bathroom I move very slowly. As slow as a Greenland shark. Which is the slowest living shark in the ocean and it's considered to be a living fossil, I think that's why it doesn't move fast at all. And that's how I feel right now. I mean slow, not like a fossil. I don't know what being a living fossil would feel like.
I finally get to the end of the hallway where my parents room is. Their door is shut and I hear the TV, it's very loud and sounds like they are watching a movie. It sounds like the old movie Romeo and Juliet. That has to be it since I hear the name Romeo being said on the TV. I don't know how they can stand the volume being up so loud, it's hurting my ears. I turn the knob but it's locked.
Frowning at the knob I shout for my daddy inside my mind since I don't want to talk. I wait a little bit but the door doesn't open. I don't understand why. I want the door to be open. I want my Mommy and Daddy.
"Momma, Dada." I say out loud, using my baby talk nicknames for them. My voice is soft but I know that they can hear me over the roaring noise of the movie they are watching. "Please let me in."
My tummy does a little flop as I repeat my words and knock on the door.
"Sounds like the little one is awake." I hear Daddy say from inside the room as the TV gets quieter.
"Opse." Mommy says. "The TV was probably too loud. I'll get the door."
Daddy says something but I don't pay attention to what is being said. I have other things on my mind, like my tummy that I have to pay attention to. It's now doing somersaults and feels horrible. I thought it was empty but it doesn't feel that way anymore. I hear footsteps walking to the door and know it will open soon but I can't wait for that, my tummy won't let me.
I need to get to the bathroom quickly. I turn around but I don't get very far before I throw up again. Right in the middle of the hallway.
"Oh, Nessie." Mommy's voice is soft. "You're not feeling well."
Her words aren't a question, it's a fact. She's right next to me, holding my hair back. I feel better that Mommy is with me now. It ends as quick as it had started. Now I am sure my tummy is empty but I feel bad that I made a mess.
"Nessie, don't worry about that." Daddy says, reading my thoughts. He's now in the hallway too. "We'll clean everything up. You just need to get back to bed and rest."
"She feels really cold." Mommy sounds worried.
"It's probably a fever." Daddy says to Mommy as he picks me up and puts his hand against my forehead. "You're freezing." He says to me.
"I feel like an iceberg." My teeth chatter with each word I say.
"I know, Princess. Let's get you into something a bit warmer." Daddy says, holding me close to him.
I don't answer. My throat hurts and I don't feel like speaking. I only wrap my arms around his neck and put my head on his shoulder. He is comfy like a pillow. Daddy stands very still, holding me in his arms.
Mommy leaves us in the hallway and rushes to the bathroom. In a blink of an eye she is back with a mop and cleaning spray to clean up my yucky mess.
"Alright, Edward, you get to mop." Mommy announces as I feel her hands on my back. "I'll take Nessie and change her clothes."
"Of course, love." Daddy replies. He kisses the top of my head before he hands me off to Mommy and he takes the mop.
Mommy carries me to my room, without putting me down she goes over to my dresser and pulls out my very warm dark pink flamingo footie pajamas. It's the one that has a hoodie with a pretty flamingo face at the top of the hoodie. As much as I like these PJs I don't usually wear them because I'm always warm and they make me feel too hot, even in winter time. However, right now I am happy that she grabbed those because when I have a fever I get very cold. And I like to be warm. When humans feel sick they might feel very hot and want to be cool but with me, it works the opposite way. Since I am naturally warm when I feel well I get very cold when I'm sick.
I have my head on Mommy's shoulder and my eyes closed. I hear her open and close a few more drawers, I don't know what else she grabbed since I am not looking. Only thing I know is that I don't want her to put me down just yet.
"Alright, Nessie." Mommy starts walking out of my room. "I'm going to give you a nice warm bath to bring your temperature up. I know you aren't feeling well, I promise it'll be quick. Okay?"
"No bath." I moan.
The last thing I feel like doing is sitting in the bathtub and getting clean. I feel yucky and sleepy. All I want to do is lay down with my Mommy and Daddy in their bed and hug my teddy bear.
"After your bath you can lay down with us." Daddy promises. I open my eyes and we are now in the bathroom. He is standing by the tub filling it with water. "But first you must take a bath. You are too cold and we need to get your temperature up. A nice hot bath will help with that."
I say nothing at all. Daddy walks out of the bathroom and the next thing I know is that I'm out of my nightgown and in the bathtub. The bath water is very warm and feels nice as Mommy uses a cup to pour the water over me and washes me up quickly. Just as she promised, it's a very quick bath. In no time at all she drains the water, gets me out, dries me off and helps me put on my pjs since I don't feel like doing it myself.
All nice and clean and feeling a bit warmer, Mommy carries me to her and Daddy's room. The TV is off and it is quiet now. Daddy is already laying down in his spot with my teddy bear and a few extra blankets. Mommy gently places me in bed next to Daddy and he bundles me up in the extra blankets before he pulls their big dark quilt over all of us. And soon I am in the middle of him with Mommy laying on the other side of me. I don't feel good but being in the middle of my Mommy and Daddy with my teddy bear in my arms makes me feel a little bit better.
"Are you ready for sleep?" Mommy asks me as she brushes my check with her fingers.
"No." I mumble. I feel too sick and yucky too sleepy.
"No?" Mommy echoes. She sounds surprised.
"Why don't we watch a little TV?" Daddy wonders, looking at me. "How does that sound?"
I don't say anything. But I think to myself - knowing that my Daddy can hear me - that watching TV sounds good.
"Then we shall watch a little TV." Daddy smiles a small smile.
I lay very still as I watch him turn around and reach for the remote that's on the nightstand on his side of the bed. He turns on the TV and the light from the screen makes the room bright. He changes the channel as Mommy points out that the rest of Romeo and Juliet would be boring for me to watch. He starts flipping through the channels.
Images flicker on the TV as Daddy tries to find something to watch. I'm curious to see what he will pick. He flips through the channels some more and I wonder what he's looking for.
"Wait, stop. That show seems good." Mommy quickly says, stopping Daddy from changing the channels again.
My eyes are on the TV screen where I see a cartoon girl wearing a green dress and pink bunny ears on her head. For some reason she is holding a yucky cantaloupe out the window while a boy in a yellow shirt and blue shorts stands beside her. I have never seen this cartoon before but I know what it's called.
"No. Not "Bob's Burgers". We are not going to watch this." Daddy changes the channel again.
"Come on Edward, It's just a cartoon." Mommy sounds annoyed.
"Bella," Daddy sighs as he keeps changing the channels. "That is a cartoon for adults. There are words on that show that are not appropriate for little ears to hear."
"Bob's Burgers is just a cartoon." Mommy says again.
While Mommy and Daddy talk about whether or not "Bob's Burgers" is a show for all ages, like Mommy thinks. Or if it's just for adults, like Daddy believes. I begin to become bored of what they are saying. It's just boring grown up talk. Instead I notice that the TV is now stopped on one channel and it's on a commercial for Chuck-E-Cheese, a place I don't want to think about.
In fact I never want to go again as long as I have to eat human food. Because I believe that the pizza and soda I had to eat made me sick. After all, I felt fine before I ate there and now I don't. I feel horrible. I never want to feel this yucky again. I never want to eat pizza or any other human food again.
"Human food didn't make you sick, Princess." Daddy says, reading my thoughts. "You have a cold. You'll be fine soon, but it has nothing to do with what you ate."
Holding my teddy bear close to me, I look at him, I'm not too sure about that. After all, human food never makes my tummy feel good when I eat it. Food of any kind makes my tummy feel big and very uncomfortable. It always has. That's why I like to drink animal blood instead of eating human food. Besides, food doesn't taste yummy to me.
I stick out my hand from the covers and put it on Daddy's cheek. Without a word I show him my memories from when I was a baby and how he would make me drink a bottle of yucky, smelly baby formula - Daddy wrinkles his nose at that - and how I didn't like it. I didn't like the smell or the taste and I still remember how it made my tummy hurt, but I still had to drink it. Just like when I got a little older how I had to eat mushy baby food and now I have to eat yucky human food. I don't like any of it.
My memories come to and end and I put my hand back underneath the warm covers. I really wish that Daddy would say I no longer have to eat human food.
"Yes, I realize all that." Daddy puts his arm around me. "That's your vampire side that doesn't care for human food, it's understandable. But you must learn to at least tolerate one food to blend in so nobody will suspect we are different. And no, pizza did not make you sick. Germs made you sick. Not food."
Closing my eyes and scooting closer to him, I think about what he said. Especially the last part. I'm not sure if that is right. After all, Daddy isn't a doctor, he's just a high school student. I'll have to ask Grandpa, who is a real doctor, if pizza can get me sick and give me a fever or if it really was germs. But I'll have to wait till I feel better.
Daddy chuckles. "True. I've never worked as a doctor. Though I do hold two medical degrees."
"What's happening?" Mommy wonders. She looks lost with what Daddy is explaining to me. After all, she didn't hear what I was thinking.
Daddy quickly explains to Mommy about what I was thinking and tells her about my memories I showed him. And of course he adds that I never want to eat human food again because I think it got me sick but he believes I got sick because of germs.
"Nessie, it was germs that made you sick." Mommy agrees with Daddy. "You can't always blame human food for sickness. You're half human, just like a human kid you are able to catch a cold and get sick. It wasn't the food."
I know that Mommy believes what she says but I'm not too convinced. I take my arm out of the covers, just as I did with Daddy, I put my hand on Mommy's face and show her all of my yucky food memories. When my memories are done I quickly put my arm back in the warm blankets.
"I know you don't like human food." Mommy puts her hand on my face. "That's no surprise to me."
"Why?" I ask, feeling that there's more to what she started to say.
"Well, back when you lived in my tummy you wouldn't let me eat any food. Not one thing." She shakes her head with a smile. "All you wanted was blood."
"Really?" I wonder.
"Yeah." Daddy says in a faraway voice.
Without a word I look between Mommy and Daddy. It's interesting that I always liked blood even when I was in Mommy's tummy. I want to hear more.
"We didn't know that at first though." Daddy says, hearing my thoughts. "It really worried me when your mother couldn't keep down food, she was human and needed the nutrition from it."
"But I didn't." I say in a hoarse voice.
"I wouldn't say that." Mommy says.
"Not exactly." Daddy sighs. "Your appetite for blood has always been greater than your appetite for food." He smiles at me and gives my forehead a kiss. "Yet, you are still half human and should eat food. And no, the pizza you ate tonight did not make you sick. Like I said, it was germs."
"It really was.' Mommy agrees with him.
I don't say anything. I just lay here between them, listening to them talk.
Mommy and Daddy both tell me the same thing, that I have a cold, that's all. Both of them go on, saying about how I must learn to eat food because we all must pretend to do so when we are out in the human world. I can tell that they aren't going to let me give up human food so easily. That's very unfortunate. Mommy and Daddy say they still want me to try to eat food once a day when I feel better since it's something that I'll have to do for the rest of my existence.
I don't like the idea that I will have to eat food for the rest of forever. Even if it is just once a day. Though I do understand why we have to do it, I just don't like it.
When the food talk comes to an end Daddy puts on a wildlife documentary about the Tasmanian Devils from Australia for us to watch. It looks interesting. Mommy and Daddy cuddle me close to them as I watch TV and begin to get sleepy.
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