Medicine

The flu has hit our family. Last weekend, my parents and brother came to visit. Ariel had a bit of a sniffle.

By the time they returned to their respective cities on Tuesday night, both of my kids, my niece, my two brothers, one sister-in-law, both parents, husband, and - yup - myself, had been hit with the Runny Nose. The Fever. The Fire-Throat. The Phlegm. The Dizziness.

The Misery.

But for the first part of the weekend it was just Ariel, and the poor guy was pretty uncomfortable. So when, on Saturday night, he cried and cried, frustrated from lack of success in breathing through his nose without swallowing large globs of mucus, it was understandably upsetting.

But I've been a mom for four years now and I've seen worse. I was sad for him, I wanted to comfort him, but I wasn't freaking out.

Elan, however, was. In the next room, lying in bed illuminated by the eerie red glow of Mr. Turtley's requisite round-the-clock warming lamp ("...Slash Nightlight! Just Like Being On Mars!"), Elan twirled his hair and listened worriedly to his younger brother's outburst.

And Elan might be manipulative, he might like to have a good time at Ariel's expense on, well, most days, but he also has a heart. A big one. And he's easily touched.

Like when Ariel falls asleep in the car and his cheeks get all pink and his lips puff out and he starts to resemble one of these Gerber babies from the Fifties, Elan is suddenly putty. And he makes all kinds of vows to give his Gerber baby every toy he's ever owned as soon as he wakes up. This intention, naturally, wears off exactly seven minutes after Ariel has woken up, but no matter. It was there.

And being faced with Ariel's pain causes even more of an inward tug than being confronted with overt cuteness. When, a few weeks ago, Ariel stubbed his toe, Elan tried everything he could conceive of that might forget the gnawing sting. And when I pointed out that it seemed to upset him to see his younger brother hurt, he nodded and pointed out, "And when Ariel had that rash all over his body that time, I feeled teerible!"

It was a nasty rash.

That night, tortured by the sounds of combined sniffles and sobs, we weren't that surprised when Elan called Y into his bedroom.

"Is Ariel going to be okay?" he asked nervously. "He sounds REALLY sad."

Y smiled. "Yes, he'll be fine, he's just not feeling well. You go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay," he replied, a bit hesitantly. Y left the room and Elan rolled onto his side to give sleep a shot. But Ariel kept crying, only half-conscious now that the Dimetapp had set it.

"Da-dddyyyyyyyy!" Elan wailed again.

Y came and saet on the edge of his bed.

"I was 'hinking," Elan began. "Ariel sounds really sick so he might need medicine. And I know sometimes Ariel doesn't want to take his medicine-" (This, I should point out, was some major projection, as Ariel takes medicine willingly so long as you applaud him afterward, and Elan would rather consume snake droppings) " - so if he won't do it, I e'cided I'll come out of bed and pretend to take some medicine too, so he will 'hink if I'm doing it, he should too!" he finished and sat up expectantly, ready to put The Plan into action.

Y grinned and smoothed his hair back. "Okay, honey. If we need your help, we'll come and get you."

"And you know how you said you'd get me a toy tomorrow for cleaning up the whole mess in the family room?" Elan continued. (Y doles out the rewards pretty generously by the end of a long work-week.)

"So could you maybe get me some'ping with a whole bunch of pieces? Because I'm going to give whatever you get me to Ariel tomorrow to make him feel better. So if you get me some'ping with a lot of pieces, I could maybe just still keep one of them."

"Yes, sweetie. I will." Y kissed him and left the room. And then told me what Elan had said.

Ariel was finally quieting down, but still whimpered confusedly when I began lowering him into his bed.

"Hey, you know what Elan just said?" I whispered into his cheek while pulling the covers up to his chin.

For the first time in hours, Ariel went still. He stop, and then, unable to resist, whispered back groggily, "What?"

"He said to tell you he loves you and he's sad that you're sick. And he wants to share his toys with you tomorrow to make you feel better."

And just like that, the storm was over. Ariel smiled.

And then he snuggled into his pillow and went to sleep.