"Papa!" Evi yelled, "Look at me! I am giving Elijah a bath."
"I can see that Evi. Make sure you clean his ears as well." Shem told her, kissing the top of her head.
I watched as the girls helped Shem look after the babies while I lied in bed, sick. My head hurt and I could not stop coughing and sneezing. Shem said I did not have a fever but I felt hot all over. Thankfully Naomi and Asher were old enough to eat some mushed berries and some other soft foods and didn't need me to feed them as much. The girls were bathing Elijah while Shem was cleaning up their mess from lunch. I had been sleeping but was now feeling a bit restless.
"Shem." I called out.
"Yes Ila, I'm coming." He replied, and came in the room a few seconds later, "What is it?"
"Can you tell me a story? I am so dreadfully bored." I asked him.
"Ila you know if I stay in here with you I will get sick as well." He told me, "I knew you would be bored so I sent a dove to mother, she should be here soon to keep you company."
"Thank you." I told him.
He left to go dry and change Elijah and I started to stich a skirt I had started a few days ago. I had to keep stitching more cloths for the girls since they seemed to be getting bigger each day. I was trying to teach them how to stich their own cloths, but they weren't getting anything accomplished so I decided I would wait a bit longer. They share cloths and soon Naomi will fit into their old ones, while Elijah wears mostly things mother had saved from when Japheth was a baby.
"Ila." I heard and looked up to see mother holding a cup of tea.
"You got the bird?" I asked her, taking the tea gratefully.
"I did and I brought Japheth with me to help Shem with the children." She replied, "How do you feel? You are warm."
"Awful. I am tired yet I cannot sleep. I can't breathe either." I told her.
"You probably got sick from the children. Not being able to sleep is due to the fever." She said.
"It is not a bad fever is it?" I asked.
"No it is not." She told me, "Let me see that skirt."
I handed her the half-done skirt. She turned it around in her hands and examined it.
"You know I kept some of the clothes that I made for you when you were younger. The girls should start to get that big in a few years. This is very good Ila." She said.
"It is scary that they are getting so big." I confided.
"Well how do you think I feel? They are my granddaughters." She said with a laugh.
"You are not old mother, and you most certainly do not look old either." I told her.
"Oh Ila you are too kind. I might not look old, but I feel it. My two oldest sons have wives and children. Shem looks so much like Noah did when he was his age." She said.
"I always thought he resembled you." I said to her.
"He did, but now I see father in him." She responded, "Now you've had your tea and our company, now it is time to sleep."
She pulled my blanket up and within minutes I was fast asleep.
"Ma! Ma!" I heard and shot up to see Elijah at the foot of my bed sobbing, a few hours later.
He ran onto the bed and buried his head into my chest. I rubbed his back soothingly and looked to Shem for an explanation.
"He refuses to sleep unless you are the one to put him down." Shem explained to me, defeated.
I got up with Elijah in my arms and walked over to his bedroom. When I got there he was still crying so I rocked and sang to him for a little while. Once he finally fell asleep, I placed him in his cot and covered him with a blanket.
"You make it look so easy." I heard Shem say behind me, "How do you feel?"
"Much better." I replied, "The tea and the sleep did it."
"Good, you sound much better." He told me, "If you are hungry mother made some dinner before she left. I can heat it up for you."
"What is it?" I asked him.
"Vegetable soup." He said, walking into the hearth and lighting the furnace."
"That sounds wonderful." I responded
Once the soup was heated up, Shem handed me a bowl and sat down next to me. I looked at him and saw what mother meant when she said he looked like father. Even though Shem had mother's kind eyes and bone structure, there were distinct features that were fathers. He has father's nose, which Naomi has as well, and their bodies were built the same, strong with lumberjack's arms. Yet they also had the same gentleness within them. Shem was a wonderful man and a wonderful father, who has a heart full of love. That is why I love him so much, even when we were children, he put everyone before him; a trait he got from mother.
"Is there something on my face?" He asked, breaking me from my thoughts.
"No Shem, I was just thinking about how beautiful you are." I replied.
"Not as beautiful as you Ila." He said, kissing my temple.
"You only say that because you have never seen another woman. As for me I could have chosen either you or Ham, but I chose you." I told him.
"And you chose me purely on my looks?" he asked, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Looks helped, but I chose you because I fell in love with you." I responded.