Head of the Class

It was late in the night that the fever and hallucinations came as swelling pulsed in the back of Alex’s skull. He awoke with a fear of falling, realizing within a few seconds that he was dizzy. He sat up and the room spun. Alex tried to get up and run to the bathroom as fast as he could, but the dizziness made it impossible for him to move in a straight line. He crashed against the dresser in the small bedroom and tumbled to the floor.

He heard thudding footsteps in the hall. “Alex? What’s the matter?” Chess appeared in the doorway, scratching the back of her head again. “Oh, my God.” She rushed over and picked him up off the floor. She slung his arm around her shoulder. “It’s OK, buddy, it’s OK,” she grunted as she clumsily hauled him to his feet.

“Bathroom,” Alex rasped in a strangled voice.

Chess carefully shuffled Alex out the door of the bedroom. Once out in the hallway, Alex leaned over and threw up on the floor.

“It’s alright; don’t worry about it,” Chess said hastily. “Come on, let’s get you to the bathroom.” Together Chess and Alex heaved and lurched into the bathroom. Chess pulled over a stepstool and helped Alex sit down in front of the toilet. Just in time, Alex sat down and puked again.

Chess ran a washcloth under cold water, wrung it out, and laid it over the bump on Alex’s head.

“Oh God,” she said. “It’s really swollen and it’s hot. I’m going to call Telehealth.”

Alex reached out and grabbed her sleeve. “Don’t leave me!” he gasped.

Chess put her hand over his and kneeled down on the floor. “OK, I won’t.” She rubbed his back while he leaned his head on his arm that was draped around the toilet seat. Alex turned and heaved into the toilet again. Chess scooped up his long hair just in time to keep it away from his mouth. Alex felt too sick to be embarrassed. He finished and spit, then reached up to flush.

Chess rubbed his back and mopped off his face with the washcloth. “Room still spinning?” she asked.

“Not as bad now,” he admitted. “Puking makes it better, oddly enough.”

“I really should call the hospital,” Chess said anxiously. She looked around the room uselessly.

Just then, Alex and Chess heard the back door unlock and open. “Chessie?” called a voice. “Are you OK?”

“In here, Willy!” Chess called. “Alex is staying the night and he’s really sick.”

Will appeared in his pajamas, scratching the right side of his head. “Oh dear,” he said, looking at the vomit on the hallway floor and walls. “You weren’t kidding.”

“Yeah, watch where you step,” Chess said. “The doctor at the hospital said someone should watch Alex overnight, and I thought it was best if he just came here. Good thing, too.”

“I’ll get you the phone,” Will said, heading to the living room.

As Will went off in search of the phone, Alex looked up at Chess with his bloodshot eyes. “How did he know to come here in the middle of the night like that? And how did he know you needed the phone?”

Chess smiled and adjusted the cool cloth on the back of Alex’s neck. “You’re not a twin, so you wouldn’t understand the telepathy.”

Will came back with the phone. “Here, Chessie. I’ll get the mop.”

“Thanks WIlly.”

As Will ran to get Chess’s mop to clean up the vomit, Chess sat back on her heels, and while still rubbing Alex’s back with one hand, dialed the phone with the other.

“Hello?.... yes, my number is 409 677 3644.... no, it’s not for me; it’s for my friend. Alex Rawlings..... uh... gee, you know, I don’t know. Hang on.” Chess pressed the phone to her chest and turned to Alex. “When’s your birthday?”

“November 4th, 1976.”

Chess looked up at the ceiling and closed one eye. After a minute she looked down again. “34.”

“35,” Alex corrected her.

“Right! 35, sorry,” she said to the nurse. “...Well, he fell on the ice and hit his head pretty hard... no, at hockey... yes, well, we’ve been to the hospital, and he got a CAT scan that showed no crack, but there was a little swelling... Now? Oh, he’s throwing up and complaining that the room is spinning...” Chess put her hand on the bump on the back of Alex’s head. “Yes, quite. The rest of him is, too.” Chess paused in the conversation and gently laid her hand on Alex’s forehead. “Um.... I wouldn’t say ‘burning up’, exactly, but he’s definitely got a fever.... Yes... Yes.... Not really. He’s not talking a lot, so... really?... OK, hang on.”

Chess leaned down and propped her head on the toilet seat so she was eye to eye with him. “Alex?”

Green, green eyes. Pretty green eyes.

“Can you hear me?”

Alex nodded.

“Do you know where you are?”

“Your house,” Alex murmured.

“Do you know why?”

“‘Cause you were nice enough to take care of me after I got home from the hospital.”

Chess smiled. “Do you know why you went to the hospital?”

“Because I fell after Bruce hit me in the face with his stick.”

Chess laughed and turned back to the phone. “He remembers everything, even the stuff that happened before he fell... OK... Yeah, maybe a little.” Chess looked in Alex’s eyes and gently tugged down one of his lower lids. “Well, they’re a little bloodshot, but that’s probably because it’s 2 in the morning... no, the pupils look about the same size.”

Will appeared with a rag mop and a bucket that steamed hot lemony suds. Alex watched as Will methodically swabbed down the hallway, while Chess continued chatting with the nurse.

“Sorry about that, man,” Alex apologized.

Will smiled, and Alex saw that his smile was identical to Chess’s. “No worries. It happens.”

Alex watched as Will continued to mop with calm steady hands.

“How did you know?” Alex asked.

Will looked up. “Know what?”

“How did you know to come here in the middle of the night? How could you tell what she needed?”

“I always could, even when we were babies,” Will replied. “So could she.” He ran the mop along the top of the baseboard. “It’s this funny tingling feeling I get on the right side of my head, and she gets it on the left side of hers. She’s my right hand, I’m her left.”

Will continued swabbing the floor. Steam rose up from the patches he’d cleaned. “And when something’s up with Dad, both Chessie and I get tingles in our foreheads.” He laughed. “That must be where we get it from.”

Alex had a younger brother whom he ignored, and he wondered how two siblings could care so much about each other.

“OK, thanks,” Chess said to the nurse in the phone. She hung up the phone and turned to Alex. She stroked his hair out of his face. “The nurse says you’re probably OK. It’s apparently normal to get dizzy and puke after a bump on the head.”

“So I don’t have to go back to the hospital?” Alex croaked.

“Nope,” said Chess. She curled his long hair behind his ear. “You get to stay here with me.” She smiled at him.

Alex almost cried with relief. No more needles.

“You feeling alright?” Will asked him.

“Yeah, better,” Alex admitted. “Just a little thirsty, maybe.”

Chess stood up and started rooting through the medicine cabinet. “I’ll give you some Advil and something to drink.”

“I’m going to head home now, Chessie,” Will said, leaning into the bathroom and patting Chess on the back. “I’ll leave the bucket here if something more happens tonight.”

“Thanks, Willy. You are a lifesaver.” She squeezed his hand.

“Want me to lock up?”

“Yes, please.”

“Alex, take care,” Will said, extending his hand.

Alex shook it. “Thanks for everything, man.”

“You bet.” Will made his way down the hall and let himself out the back door. The key turned in the lock and the house fell into a deep night silence.

Alex suddenly felt very tired. “I think I want to go back to bed now,” he said meekly.

“Alright. Let me just get you a little water,” Chess said, running cold water into a toothpaste cup. “Here you are.”

Alex sipped the cold water slowly, hoping it would stay down. It felt cool and fresh in his dry, sick mouth. Chess handed him a clear blue capsule, and he swallowed it down gratefully.

Chess kneeled down in front of him. She had a warm washcloth in her hand, and she gently wiped his face with it. He closed his eyes as she patted the washcloth over his eyes and his forehead.

“There we go,” she whispered. “All better.” She kissed his forehead tenderly.

Alex reached up and closed his arms around her. She pulled him close to her and he sank into her warm soft body. God, she was so nice.

“Chess,” he murmured into her chest.

“Yeah, baby,” she replied sleepily.

“Can I come to bed with you?”

He could hear the smile in her voice. “You bet.” Chess stood up and helped lift Alex to his feet. The dizziness was gone, but the headache had arrived. Hopefully, the Advil would take care of that soon. Chess slipped her arm around Alex’s waist and slowly steered him towards her room. She turned off the hall light on her way by, and just the light from her bedroom lit their way, beckoning like a beacon.

Inside the robin’s egg blue room was a large double bed just right for two. After she turned out the light, plunging them both into darkness, Chess slipped into the sheets and pulled them back. “Come on in,” she said. “It’s still a little warm.”

Alex lay down on the bed and Chess gently folded the sheets over him. She patted them in place, smoothing them down over his body. He loved her touch on his back and shoulder. The whole bed smelled soft and sweet like her.
Chess cuddled up to Alex’s back and draped her arm across his shoulder. Alex held her hand close to his heart.

“Alex,” Chess whispered. “I think I love you.”

Alex smiled. He had been thinking the same thing. “How can you tell?” Alex asked her.

“The back of my head is tingling,” she whispered.

The back of the head. Right where Alex had his bump.

The left half for Will. The front part for her dad. And now the back for him.