When she woke up the next morning Aara got changed and then tied her hair up preparing to clean everything from top to bottom in the house. When she had started most of the kids were asleep which she was thankful for since they get in the way being underfoot and all. She started by mopping all the floors, then washing the walls. She tackled the kitchen next putting away clean dishes and anything dirtied she had missed the night before and immediately after wiping down all the counters. She tackled bathrooms next, wiping the mirrors, wiped down the sinks, counters and toilets.
She was just fixing a third floor tub with a leaky tap when a sleepy Sai stumbled in his pyjamas rumpled and rubbing at his eye, "Morning Aara." He slurred sleepily, suddenly he clutched his stomach, Aara acted fast leaping to her feet and snatching the boy up getting him in front of the toilet.
He threw up his entire stomach's contents, he began to sob in pain and embarrassment, Aara crouched down next to him helping to hold his hair back with one hand and rub circles on his back with the other hand. She made comforting noises for him until he managed to stop.
"Thank you." He sniffed to her gratefully.
"Hey we all get sick sometimes, one of these days I'm going to be sick and you're going to have to hold my hair back for me." She answered him.
He sighed exhaustedly and leaned back against her, "No you're not going to get sick. You're like a mom and moms don't get sick."
She giggled at this and ran her fingers through Sai's hair he mumbled something along the lines of that felt nice and she continued to do it knowing that it comforted the small boy, "Now now, moms do get sick and I'm not your mother."
Sai sighed and leaned back against her, "You are like our mother though, looking after us all, playing, cooking cleaning, teaching. Who knows where we would be without you." He answered.
"I'm sure you would have managed somehow." She answered him.
He turned in her lap and cried into her shoulder, "No don't say that. None of us could have made it, it's all thanks to you Aara!" she was somewhat stunned for that second as he clutched her tightly digging his nails into her skin, "Please don't ever leave us, you're all we have Aara. I don't know how to thank you properly for what you've done, please don't ever leave me. I love you like you're my mom."
She felt touched to the very bottom of her heart at his words and smiled down at him even though he couldn't see her face, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back, "I promise I will always be here to look after you, no matter what."
They sat on the bathroom floor for a few more seconds holding one another before Aara broke the silence, "Let's get you back to bed, how does that sound. I'll make your favourite for breakfast omelette, how does that sound?"
"It sounds good…" he answered, with that said Aara got to her feet still holding Sai and he was still latched onto her. He was surprisingly light in her arms she figured it was because he was ill. She carried him back to his room and creaked the door open as silently as she could and walked over to his bed.
It took a few seconds of struggle to get him to release her and put him back in his bed. He was sound asleep, she chuckled quietly to herself and pulled his blanket up over him placing a soft motherly kiss on his forehead.
She got back to the bathroom and flushed the toilet before disinfecting it determinably, she would never say it but she was petrified that some of the children with Geostigma would die. It was easy to forget at times when they were playing, but at moments like these when she has to help them throw up or help bring down a fever she feels overwhelmed with fear for them.
Sighing heavily she grabbed her cleaning supplies and clomped down the stairs to the kitchen. The healthy children had started to awaken and were now running about the house playing and chasing and overall being children.
A few of them paused in their games to look at Aara, "Aara is there anything we can do to help?" they asked her.
"No I'm fine thanks, I'm almost finished with the chores anyways. All that's left is the laundry." She answered smiling. The oldest child in the house, Bram looked up from his book from his usual seat in the corner out of the way of the playing children and sighed pushing his glasses up his nose.
He shook his head out, Aara puts too much strain on herself, she runs around all day handling everything herself-I need to confront her soon he thought to himself. He got up and stuck his hands in his pockets, "Hey Aara, let me make breakfast."
She shook her head out, "Mm no honestly I'm fine, just go back to reading Bram you've got school to worry about." She answered him.
"No I insist Aara, c'mon I'm almost fifteen now I need to become responsible." He answered her.
She turned around to face him putting her fists on her hips, "Now, now I'm the one who gets to decide when you're all grown up." She then flicked him on the forehead, "And you're still little Brammy boy. I can make breakfast, I'm not old you know."
He rubbed at his forehead, it was something she had done to him since they had first met, she called it her punishment for when the kids were bad. Bram was at first a trouble maker when he first came and got flicked almost constantly on the forehead, but after a while he realised that he respected Aara and made an attempt to behave.
He followed her into the kitchen and watched her prepare breakfast, "Bram." She called.
He glanced up from his spot at the table, "Mhm." He answered.
"Can you do me a favour?" Aara asked, he jumped in his spot feeling excited that she was going to ask him to do something for a change instead of taking all the burden on herself.
"Stay young for me?" she playfully teased him.
"Hey that's not a favour!" he whined in response.
He watched as she made breakfast, "Aara here I'll carry this up to the third floor." He offered reaching forward for the tray. She pulled it away from him.
"I've got it." She insisted, "Just get everyone else into the dining room." She stated, he nodded his head sighing at the fact that she would not delegate any work. He walked out of the kitchen and called everyone to attention.
Bram always managed to get everyone to listen, but it wasn't like with Aara. Bram knew they listened because he was older and sterner, whereas with Aara it was purely respect and admiration that drove them to listen.
Aara reappeared half way through the meal sitting down with her plate that was noticeably smaller in size, "Aara is that really all you're going to eat?" asked Zoe one of the older girls who was about eleven if Bram remembered correctly.
"Yeah, I wasn't all that hungry." Aara replied sheepishly, Bram could see the lie. He noticed that as he got older that he was able to notice things that he didn't when he was younger. The fact that Aara lied about how she was, how exhausted she would look after a day's work. Details he missed when he was younger and he attributed to being naïve.
He pushed up from his spot and walked over to Aara with his plate in hand pushing the remainder of his plate onto hers, truth be told he was still hungry but he wanted to do what he could, "I got full." He stated as an explanation.
He then went to make his way to the kitchen, "Wait, wait!" Ara called out causing him to pause in his tracks, "I've got an announcement to make. I know that usually on Sundays I take a break and play with you all. But things are a little different this week. I'm going to have to run some errands today. While I'm gone Bram is in charge okay!" she called out.
"Yes Aara!" the children called back to her.
She smiled, "I want you all to be well behaved and listen to Bram, what he says goes alright? And don't make a mess I just cleaned this morning." She added.
About an hour alter Aara was finally ready to leave with her shopping list in hand her small brown satchel resting at her hip, "I'll be back in a few hours' time alright!" she called as she stepped out the front door, the house meanwhile had been thrown into chaos and all the hard work she had put in that morning cleaning had been absolutely eradicated.
She shook her head out looking at the mess that awaited her and decided that the best course of action would be to get home as soon as possible-if she was fast enough she could probably recruit some of the older children to help in the housework.
She glanced down at the list again and how it seemed to grow every week. She then rooted around her satchel with her hand, money had always been tight but it seemed these days money was harder to come across despite the fact there were more jobs than ever for finding and reuniting the lost and missing.
Bram meanwhile was attempting to make peace out of the chaos that was the house, he couldn't understand how Aara dealt with it all-all the noise, the screaming, the constant running around made him exhausted. I guess I have to give her more credit than I thought due he told himself chasing after Rin who was up to no good a pot in one hand and a pan in the other banging them together to make a horrible clattering sound.
"That's it everyone freeze!" he bellowed, and everyone froze at his angry shout and looked at him surprised he was usually quiet and reserved never losing his temper-though all the children knew he was easily irritated, he sighed, "We're going to have a nice organised game of hide and seek."
"But there's no way there's enough hiding spots for us all Bram!" Rin whined.
"Fine then hide and clap, does everybody know the rules?" he asked, after that the children calmed considerably and with Rin, Zoe and a few of the other older children's help he managed to somewhat structure the day.
That was until Sai came tumbling down the stairs, Bram immediately dashed over to pick the sick boy up-Sai wasn't sick when he first arrived at the house. But he also spent a lot of time playing on the street and that's where Bram thought he got Geostigma from.
Bram used to play with Sai, he picked him up, "Hey, hey Sai are you alright?" he asked checking the boy over for injury. If Aara was his older sister he considered Sai a younger brother.
"I-I'm fine it's the new kid Tomo. He isn't doing so great… we need Aara right away." He managed out weakly.
"Aara isn't here, she left to run errands." Bram said.
"Well you have to find her right away." Sai said weakly.
Bram felt his heart race he had to do something and he had to do it fast there was a life on the line, it was his turn to be the one to help Aara-he wasn't weak or young or foolish anymore he was grown up it was his turn to help.
"Rin carry Sai back upstairs get him to bed, take care of Tomo don't leave his side for anything. Zoe I want you to keep the younger kids here, keep them quite craft time maybe get some chores in. Anybody over ten we have to go and find Aara right away, come with me." The children assigned tasks nodded their head in understanding, the younger children also nodded setting their faces with determination.
The children that Bram called for assembled outside in the street, he organized them into groups and they took off to their respective neighbourhoods to search for Aara. Bram sprinted he purposely gave himself the farthest location. Being in the slums streets weren't the only way to get around quickly-they learned well from Aara means of short cuts through abandoned and ruined buildings. Roof tops became roads, so did fire escapes anything they could manage to climb on or leap on.
He clambered up a fire escape nimbly leaping into the empty window of the next building and sliding down the stairs to the ground floor dashing down into the street that would lead to where Aara usually shopped for vegetables.
Something though made him pause halfway through his sprint, he saw a truck that was loading children into the back of it, it was being overlooked by two teens who couldn't be much older than Aara. He changed course and ran over.
"Hey what do you think you're doing? Where do you think you're taking those kids?" he demanded angrily feeling protective over the kids and trying to think of how Aara would deal with the situation. She probably wouldn't have been so confrontational-at least not at first she always managed to keep a cool head during tense situations knowing exactly what to do. It was always Bram that had been rash, that's what always got him into trouble before he met Aara. However, a stench filled his nostrils a familiar scent, the Geostigma. Glancing over each of the children he saw that they all were infected.
"We're being taken for treatment, these guys said they have the cure." One of the children piped up.
"That's right, we're just taking them with us to cure them we have to look out for our brothers and sisters." Said one of the teens, he had shoulder length silver hair and cat eyes. Bram stared at him, brothers and sisters… he's like Aara he wants to help them he thought he said he has the cure… if we could cure everyone back at the house things would become better… there's a cure his mind chanted.
"Can you bring this cure to our house, we have many sick there." He said.
The teen raised one of his eyebrows, "Is that so?"
Bram nodded, "I'd say at least fifteen sick." He answered shifting from foot to foot impatiently, either he was wasting his time or he needed these people to help as soon as possible not noticing the smirk that stretched across the teen's face as he glanced to his brothers, "Can you bring the cure to us?" he demanded.
The teen shook his head, "We can't bring the cure to you, you have to come with us." He insisted.
Bram felt his heart race, should I get Aara or should I get the kids, "How much longer are you going to be here?" Bram questioned.
"I'd say at least twenty minutes, you should run along and go get your sick siblings we wouldn't want to leave anyone behind." The mysterious teen told Bram.
Bram nodded adjusting his glasses on his nose, "Please wait here I'll be back as soon as possible." And with that dashed back off in the direction of the house his heart pounding in his ears. I have to save everyone, I can save every one he chanted to himself, he arrived at the house feeling winded and sprinted up the stairs taking them two at a time and practically knocking down the door.
Rin had done as he asked and more, all of the sick children were gathered into one room under her supervision. The able bodied were helping the sicker children who were bedridden.
"You all have to come with me right now! I found someone with a cure!" Bram shouted, "But we have to leave right now!"