All Fall Down Read online

He shook his head and clung to her, even as Sunny tried to find a way to sit next to him without messing up the towels Liesel had put down. She didn’t want to look too far into the garbage can. He clutched at her shirt, and she tried delicately to peel him off her.

  “She…she maked me…”

  “What, Happy?” Sunny managed to push him away enough so she could look into his face. “Who made you what?”

  “He’s upset because I made him put on a Pull-ups,” Liesel said from the doorway. “But he’d messed twice, couldn’t make it in time to the potty—”

  Happy let out a wail of shame and buried his face against Sunny’s side. Liesel looked pained. Sunny stroked her son’s hair.

  “Shh,” she told him. “It was an accident. Liesel’s not mad.”

  “Of course I’m not. Oh, Happy, honey, I’m not mad.” Liesel shook her head, bouncing Bliss a little as the baby whined. “But honey, you couldn’t keep messing in your pants.”

  “I’m sorry,” Happy whispered against Sunny’s side. “I tried, Mama. I tried real hard.”

  Across the room, an uncharacteristically silent Peace let out a low cry and began to heave. Liesel groaned and went to her. “Over the can, Peace. Lean over!”

  Sunny went to get up, but Happy wouldn’t let her go. His shoulders heaved. He let out a hurking gag, and Sunny didn’t spend another second in thought; she grabbed up the garbage can and twisted him around to put it in front of his face. She fought her own gag as the wet splatter of vomit hit the plastic bag, followed immediately by the rancid smell.

  Five minutes later, Liesel passed Sunny a fresh roll of paper towels and some Lysol, along with a damp cloth. They worked in silence to clean up both kids while Bliss sat on the floor in between them, alternately wailing and drifting into whimpers. Sunny worked on autopilot, wiping Happy’s face and trying to get him to lie back. Everything reeked, her stomach churned, and all she could think of was how grating the sound of her daughter’s whining was.

  “What should we do?” Liesel sounded helpless and looked bleak. She had circles under her eyes and her hair stood in sweaty spikes.

  Sunny didn’t feel too great herself. “I don’t know.”

  Liesel frowned. “Should we give them some ice or something to suck on? Or Pedialyte? Some ginger ale, maybe. That’s what my mom gave me when I was sick. And saltines. I’ll have to run to the store to get some. What do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Sunny repeated, unsure what sort of answer Liesel wanted. Or expected.

  “Well…” Liesel carefully wiped her hands with a package of bleach cleaning wipes she normally used for the counters. “What do you usually do when they’re sick?”

  Sunny felt as helpless then as Liesel had looked. She shrugged and looked down at Happy, who’d finally closed his eyes. She looked at Peace, who could only stare, her small face wan and pathetic. “I don’t know, they’ve never been sick.”

  Chapter 41

  “What do you mean, they’ve never been sick? They’re kids! Kids are always sick!” Liesel stank of sweat and puke and shit. She felt more than a little like throwing up herself. She’d been dealing with this for the past four hours and had reached her limit.

  Sunny stroked Happy’s hair back from his face. The boy looked as if he’d fallen asleep, which meant he’d probably have another accident. Liesel pushed a toy toward cranky Bliss, who tossed it aside.

  “Not like this,” Sunny said. “Never like this.”

  She gave Liesel one of those blank stares, and Liesel wanted to smack it off her face. It was wrong, she knew that. Sunny was doing the best she could. It wasn’t her fault the kids had thrown up or shit on nearly everything in the house today.

  But they were Sunny’s kids. Not Liesel’s. If anyone should be dealing with this, it was Sunshine.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” Liesel said because she didn’t want to say any of the other million things running through her brain. Mean things. Words that weren’t even necessarily true, but would taste so good to spew. “Then I’ll run to the store and pick up some ginger ale and saltines. Popsicles. Some medicine. Stuff like that.”

  Not even a shadow of an expression twitched at Sunny’s face. Liesel wanted to shake her just to get a rise out of her. How could she sit there so stone-faced? She should look worried! Or at the least, repulsed by the choking stench in the room.

  “Sunny, did you hear what I just said?”

  “Yes, Liesel. I’m sorry the kids are sick and made a mess.”

  Guilt, huge and painful, bopped Liesel on the back of the head…followed a second later by irritation. This was a pattern. Sunny or her children did something that made a mess, caused a scene, was a problem, and she apologized profusely like Liesel was some sort of…stepmonster. Then Liesel told her it was all okay, and she never seemed to believe it, no matter how hard Liesel and Christopher worked to prove to her she and the kids were a welcomed and yes, loved, part of this family.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” Liesel repeated. “If they puke, make sure they get it in the cans, I don’t want to have to shampoo my rugs again.”

  Fifteen minutes in the shower worked wonders for her psyche. The irritation faded. So did the guilt. Liesel bent her head under the hot, pounding water and let it work the tight muscles in her neck and shoulders. Anybody facing the geysers of sick she’d had to deal with today would’ve reacted the same way she had, if not worse.

  She’d hit the store, stock up on everything from hand sanitizer to tummy meds. Surely Christopher would be home in a few hours, and he could help out, too. They’d get through this, and it would be awful and disgusting, but maybe someday they’d look back on it and laugh. Or at least have a story to tell at parties when the topic turned, as it inevitably did, to the worst things that ever happened to you.

  Back in the den, though, everything had gotten worse. Sunny held a gagging, choking Bliss over one can while Peace dry heaved into another. Happy wept and moaned from his place on the couch with a fresh wave of stink to show he’d had another accident.

  Liesel stopped in the doorway and almost turned and ran away, but instead forced herself to move a couple steps forward. “Oh, no. Bliss, too?”

  Sunny looked up, her face haggard. “Yes. She just started. Liesel, they’re really sick.”

  “Let me call Christopher again.” Liesel’s stomach sunk and she looked with something like longing toward the hall. The door to the garage. If only she hadn’t taken that shower, she’d have been out the door and gone by now. She’d have had an hour or so of freedom. She could still go. They still needed crackers and ginger ale…but no. She couldn’t just abandon them. “Maybe he can pick up the stuff on his way home from…wherever the hell he is.”

  Sunny’s blank look faltered for a moment, but she visibly firmed her mouth and blinked away any hint of tears. “Happy needs a shower. Bliss too, she’s covered in throw up. I can take them both in with me…can you watch Peace? Please?”

  The way she said it, like Liesel might refuse, set Liesel’s teeth on edge, though she knew Sunny was only trying to be respectful. “Of course. You go. Let’s do what we can. Peace, honey, let me get you a little water. Just a few sips.”

  Half an hour later, none of the kids were better. In fact, they were worse. Bliss had gone glaze-eyed, head lolling. Feverish. Peace slept, but fitfully, and Happy, who almost never cried, now couldn’t stop moaning and weeping.

  “I can’t get in touch with Christopher.” Liesel stabbed her phone to disconnect before leaving a third voice mail. “Sunny, we need to think about taking these babies to the emergency room.”

  “What?” Sunny looked up, eyes wide. Her hair, still wet from the shower that had been made pointless moments after they got out when both kids were sick again, clung to her cheeks. “No!”