The Hockey Life

PART FIFTY-NINE: SICK
In Patrick’s P.O.V.
Beep, beep, beep…I hated the sound of my alarm clock, especially this morning. It interrupted a dream about Lena and I that I was thoroughly enjoying. Once I left my dream state, reality hit me like a puck to the face. My head hurt badly. I didn’t understand why it hurt first thing in the morning, but it did. Unfortunately, I had to get up for practice soon, so I forced myself to get out of bed and deal with it.
I got dressed and realized that my nose was running too. Great, I must have gotten a head cold from someone in Nashville. I made sure to eat and take medicine before I headed out the door, because a mere cold wasn’t going to stop me from practicing.
When I got to Lena’s apartment, I felt ridiculous. I had a case of needing a box of Kleenex with me at all times, and I didn’t have one.
“Hey,” Lena said when she opened the door.
“Hi. Do you happen to have tissues somewhere?” I asked. She went to the bathroom and grabbed a box, which she handed to me when she returned.
“Keep these in your car. I take it you’re getting sick?”
“Thanks. Yeah, it’s a head cold, I think. I took some medicine, though. I’m sure it’ll kick in soon,” I answered.
“You’re sure it’s just a cold? No offense, but you don’t look so good,” she commented.
“Yes, I’ll be fine. Let’s go and get this practice over with.”
When Lena and I got to practice, we went our separate ways. I rolled my eyes at the typical locker room comments and conversations as I got changed into my practice uniform and as soon as I got out to the bench, Lena handed me a water bottle.
“I don’t care if it’s just a cold, try to drink a lot of water,” she told me.
“Hey, it’s just like the good old days,” I smirked, remembering when she was in the internship, making sure I stayed hydrated.
“Oh, shut up! I’m serious, though. Drink up,” she replied.
My theory of having just a head cold slowly got de-bunked once I got out on the ice and started practicing. Moving around made my headache worse until my head was throbbing and I could barely focus anymore. I started feeling crappy, too. Feverish, even. When we took a break to listen to Coach, I was relieved. It wasn’t a long enough break, though, not for me. Coach seemed to realize that something was going on, so he called me over individually while Johnny started a drill with everyone else.
“Are you alright, Kaner?” Coach asked me.
“I’m just a little sick, that’s all. I didn’t feel a hundred percent when I woke up, but I thought I’d be able to practice anyways,” I explained.
“Is practicing making it worse?” he wondered. I nodded. “Why don’t you take a break and talk to Lena? I know she’s not exactly a doctor, but she can figure out if you have a fever or not. If need to go home, then you need to go home. I’d rather you stay there and get better than come here and make it worse,” he told me.
“Okay.” I made my way over to Lena and sat down. Before she could say anything, I grabbed my water and took a sizable swig of it.
“What’s wrong?” she questioned me.
“I feel a lot worse,” I answered.
“Take your helmet off,” she instructed me. I did and she felt my forehead. “You feel really hot, Pat. Do you feel feverish at all?”
“A little.”
“How about your head? Does it hurt any less?”
“No, it hurts more, now,” I admitted. Lena sighed.
“Well, if Coach Q is alright with it, I think you should go home. The last thing you should be doing is playing hockey.”
Lena talked to Coach a couple minutes later, and he agreed that I shouldn’t be there. Brad told Lena that she could go home early, so she decided to take me home and take care of me. I told her that I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but she insisted on helping anyways. She made me sit in the passenger seat so she could drive and we stopped to get medicine, more Kleenex, drinks, and food. By the time we got back to my apartment, I was shivering, yet my skin still felt like it was on fire. I took more medicine and kept lots of water and tissues next to my bed. Lena made me chicken noodle soup and once I was done eating, she took my temperature.
“A hundred and two degrees. You still have a fever,” she announced. “You should probably get some sleep.”
“Okay, I’ll try,” I promised. She gave me a cold, wet rag for my forehead and left me alone in my room. I was amazingly very tired, so it didn’t take me long to fall asleep.
*********************************************************
When I woke up, I immediately looked at the clock. Five hours had passed since I first fell asleep. My head was feeling a little better, but I still didn’t feel very fantastic. I also could hear and feel my stomach growling, so I decided to get up and heat up more soup.
I found Lena in the living room, watching TV. I was surprised to see that she was still here, although I guess she wouldn’t leave without letting me know. I felt bad that I had been asleep all this time, though. Hopefully she found plenty of things to watch on TV while I was napping.
“Hey, you’re up,” she said when she noticed me. “How are you feeling?”
“Better, but not great,” I answered. “Is there any soup left?”
“Yeah, I’ll get you some.” She sprung up to get it.
“I can get it, sit down!” I told her.
“I can get it too, Patrick. You’re still sick, so you should stay in bed. I’ll bring you some soup in a minute,” she insisted, so I made my way back to my bedroom. Lena joined me once she had heated up the soup that was left and I finished off my second bowl of the day. Lena took my temperature again and as it turned out, my fever was almost completely gone. Since I had gotten plenty of sleep, Lena stayed in my room with me and we watched Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison to occupy ourselves. In between movies we had Jello, and when the second one was over, it was starting to get late, so I took another dose of medicine.
“Are you ever going to go home?” I asked Lena.
“Why, do you not want me here?” she wondered.
“I always want you here with me, but it’s not very fun to hang out with a sick person.”
“Yeah, but if it’s a cute sick person, it’s worth it,” Lena smiled. “I’ll stay here all night, I don’t mind.”
“Okay, if that’s what you want,” I decided.
“That’s what I want.”
Lena changed into a pair of my sweatpants and we turned off the lights but kept the TV on. After a while, we both drifted off to sleep, with the TV still playing a show silently in the background.
***********************************************************
I woke up in the morning to the TV, slightly louder than it had been when I fell asleep. I yawned and remembered how sick I had been the day before. Compared to then, I felt much better. I could tell already that it was going to be a lazy day and I would need plenty of tissues still, but when I reached for the box on my bedside table, I couldn’t find it. I turned to face the other side of the bed and I watched Lena grab a Kleenex out of the stolen box just in time to sneeze into it.
“Good morning,” I guiltily grimaced.
“Good morning,” she said.
“I see you stole my box of tissues,” I observed.
“Yeah. I think you’re just a little contagious,” Lena answered.
“I’m sorry, babe. I knew you’d get sick if you stayed with me,” I apologized.
“I knew it too, it’s okay. Are you at least feeling a little better?”
“Definitely. I’m still sick, but I’m well enough to take care of you. I’m pretty sure I owe you a lot for yesterday,” I decided.
“Yeah, I guess you kind of do.”
Needless to say, I spent the whole day taking on the job that Lena had the day before. I got her drinks, soup, medicine, anything she needed or wanted. I helped her get rid of her fever that she developed in the afternoon, and since we were both sickies, I laid in bed with her while she rested. It wasn’t how I envisioned our days off to be, but I was happy that I was able to make her feel better the way she helped me. It was nice to just be with Lena, even if that meant staying in bed with soup, hot tea, and Kleenex boxes galore.

Notes