Aya talks about a Netflix series and Ancient Greece

She wished for tomorrow in the evenings, Tangled up in her blankets and her eyelids fluttering open at any sign of light. She wished to wash the previous day from her skin, Scrubbing the ink marks that stained her hands and the dirt that lay under her fingernails with water until they disappeared down the drain. But wishing for tomorrow didn’t make the memories disappear, It just meant another day with thoughts of the past swirling through her head.

During the summer, she wished for the frigid winter months. Longing for the protection of wool coats around her shoulders and fur-lined hats to cover her ears that turned pink from the wind’s chill. When sweat sprinkled her brow from the golden beams of the sun, she wished for the feeling of the cold enveloping her within its spidery hands. In winter, there were steaming cups of hot chocolate, holiday specials that only came on the air once a year, and week-long breaks from school. Summer was cutting away her long vermillion hair and a constant anxious feeling that filled her chest as she thought of the ways she wished to change, the ways she never did.

She ached for change with each beat of her heart. Change that could let her cut back the unwanted roots that had tied themselves around her ankles and attached her to the barren ground. And she would leave their remains sitting on the cool earth. She longed to be free on the breeze like a sparrow floating through the air, But she was still in her own barred cage. A cage made of gilded metal. A cage built off her own doubts.

Soon it would be winter, Winter was her escape, And escape cascaded through the breeze on feathered wings. Wings not clipped back, Head not tucked under the folds of the plume. Rootless and free.

By Blue Serendipity

Was I warming up to Adelaide? I didn’t despise her, but I wasn’t necessarily fond of her either. Occasionally her crying would get on my nerves and her inability to do simple things became too infuriating for me to handle. I mean, you’d think drawing shapes wouldn’t be that difficult, right? Unfortunately, it was. And so, I decided that the best course of action would be to just leave her be. It’d save everyone some pain. Therefore we all quickly settled into a comfortable routine. Laura would watch over Adelaide for the most part as she was unable to work from home. I would spend my time working in the office until Adelaide was put down for a nap. Then I would help clean the house up and we would watch a little TV in the living room. It worked for two days before something went wrong. “Irene?” called Laura from the room Adelaide slept in. I groggily mumbled a reply. Adelaide had woken us both up with her crying which wasn’t out of the ordinary, but usually Laura was able to get her to go back to sleep within a couple minutes. “Irene!” “What’s wrong?” I asked, beginning to hear the urgency in her voice. “I think Adelaide’s got a fever. Where’s the thermometer?” “A fever?” I echoed. Rushing into the bathroom, I rummaged through our messy drawer of first-aid supplies. I didn’t remember the last time either of us had dealt with a fever so there was no guarantee the thermometer was in there. “It’s not in the bathroom!” “Try one of the drawers in the kitchen?” “Why would it be in the kitchen?” I asked incredulously. “Because my mom used to keep medicine in a kitchen cupboard. I might’ve put it in there when we moved here!” As it turned out, the thermometer really was in a kitchen cupboard. Right next to a couple tins of tea leaves. It was a strange place to keep a thermometer but I would have to question it more later. Adelaide’s face was flushed red as she wailed in Laura’s arms. Usually her crying made me cringe, but I knew that a fever wasn’t good for a baby’s health. “Is she old enough for fever medication?” I asked as I handed Laura the thermometer. “I don’t know. Maybe we should call Jane?” Laura suggested with uncertainty. I pursed my lips and we waited for the thermometer to finish taking Adelaide’s temperature. Once it started beeping, we both crowded around it with dread pooling in our stomachs. 101.5 I cursed under my breath and Laura shot me a quick glare. She didn’t even have to say anything for me to understand her message. No cursing around kids. “We should call Jane,” I declared. Laura handed me Adelaide to search for my

“This Is The Result Of Me Running 10 Miles in 90 Degree Weather: I Lie In The Middle Of My Road And Take Photos Of The Cherry Blossoms. Even Dead Tired I’m A Photography God,” Photograph by Calliope

phone. I didn’t trust myself to be able to hold her securely as she was throwing a fit, so I went to the living room and sat down on the couch. Looking down at my arms, I realized that Adelaide was still asleep even though she was still crying so much. For a while, I wondered if she was having a fever dream. As a kid I tended to have a nightmare every time I had a fever. In fact, having a nightmare eventually became the first sign of my fever. But Adelaide was still so young. I wasn’t sure if babies her age even dreamed. Even if Adelaide wasn’t having a fever dream, I knew that having a fever wasn’t fun. “Okay, okay, let’s hope they pick up,” said Laura, rushing into the living room with her phone. It rang for nearly 30 seconds on speaker before someone finally answered. “Hello?” mumbled Jane, her voice laden with sleep. “Hey, it’s Laura we—” “Laura? Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?” interrupted Jane with - understandable - irritation. “And… is there a baby?” “Yeah, Irene found a baby in Fred Meyer the other day and— it’s a long story. She has a fever, and we don’t know what to do,” explained Laura quickly. There was a brief moment

of silence from the other end. Then, they heard her husband asking what was going on. Jane whispered something back before raising her voice back to normal to speak to us. “Okay, uh, how old is she and what’s the temperature?” Jane asked. “We don’t know how old she is, but she can stand and sort of walk. She has a temperature of 101.5.” I attempted to rock Adelaide a bit in my arms like people always did in movies, hoping that it would soothe her a bit. Surprisingly, it did seem to work. Her wails slowly died down to soft sniffles and Adelaide began to wake. Her glassy green eyes stared up at me in slight curiousity and her lips tugged downwards has if she was going to cry again. I held my breath, desperately hoping that she would stay calm. Thankfully, she did. “Keep an eye on her temperature,” instructed Jane. “If it goes above 102 and doesn’t go down after a day then call a doctor. Maybe give her a lukewarm sponge bath and definitely keep her hydrated.” “So they can’t have any ibuprofen or tylenol?” I asked curiously. “I doubt you guys have any that’s meant for young children,” said Jane dryly. “Besides, if you don’t know her exact age it’d be a good idea to just try the sponge bath for now and call a doctor if her temperature doesn’t go away.” “Alright, she’s awake right now, so we can try the sponge bath and see if it goes down by morning,” I said standing up. “Call me back in the morning to let me know, alright?” asked Jane. “I’ve got a lot of questions about why you both suddenly have a baby.” “We will, don’t worry,” promised Laura with mild amusement. “Thanks, goodnight.” The two of us crowded into the bathroom and began setting up a bath before realizing it would be very difficult to bathe such a small child in such a large tub. The last thing we wanted was for Adelaide fall backwards and accidentally choke on any bath water. “I mean, we could use a pot,” I joked. Laura stifled a laugh and shook her head. “What about the plastic box we used to keep the extra blankets in? It should be in the storage closet.” Luckily, Adelaide knew how to sit properly, which made it a lot easier to bathe her. She actually seemed to enjoy the bath a lot and splashed around with a purple loofah. It didn’t lower her temperature immediately, but it did seem to tire her enough for her to fall back asleep. “We should have her sleep in our room tonight,” suggested Laura, “to make it easier to check up on her if she starts crying again.” “Are we going to disassemble the crib and reassemble it in our room?” I asked incredulously. “That seems a little difficult.” After all, it had been Jane and her husband Matthew that assembled it in the guest room. We had agreed to leave it in there as they tended to visit quite often in the summer and needed a place for Andrew to sleep. From what I remembered, the crib had a been ridiculously complicated for them to put together and I wasn’t very keen on trying to figure it out without the instructions. “Right, let’s just sleep in the guest room,” said Laura, realizing how ridiculous it would be. Luckily, Adelaide slept peacefully through the rest of the night. I thought that it would be nice not having to wake up multiple times throughout the night, but knowing she had a fever made me assume the worst. I quickly rushed out of bed and peered into the crib, scanning the sleeping baby for anything wrong. Nothing. Adelaide was breathing normally and just seemed deep in sleep. I let out a breath of relief. Laura, who was beginning to wake up, noticed me standing by Adelaide’s crib and furrowed her eyebrows. “What? Is something wrong?” she asked. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I was just checking to see if she was still asleep.” I didn’t really want to tell Laura what I was truly checking for. After all, I had been so against children in general when I first brought Adelaide home. But Laura had been right. I was warming up to her. There was no way I was going to let Laura know that though, at least… not yet.

To Be Continued...