Savage Love (11 page)

     “Me! Stressed?
” Samantha jokingly said, but she knew Seanna was right, she did tend to let thinks worry her too easily. “I am turning a new leaf, no more stressing. God will take care of what I can’t. So, no need to worry. Right?”

    
“Right!”

     Daffyd and Bryce were busy while the girls worked outside. Daffyd had come up with a plan and shared his ideas with Bryce. Though Bryce could give advice, Daffyd would need his lawyer to get everything set up. Bryce completely agreed with his Uncle’s plan, especially because it would help his new friend. Soon they had the lawyer on speaker phone and were laying it all out for him.

     “So can you get that all set up as soon as possible?” asked Daffyd.

     “I’ll get right on it. Now what did you say the girls name was?” he asked.

     “Her name is Seanna Sheppard. She starts school this fall at
the
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Just remember that this has to be set up in a way that it won’t come back to me. Create an organization to help with college for children of teachers. Find a few more to help as well so that it will look legit. These people don’t like to ask for help and I want to keep it completely anonymous,” Daffyd explained.

    
“Got it. You just want to help a few less fortunate’s get a good education. Ok, I’ll give you a call when it is all set up. I will have the information come right from the financial aid office at the school. Take care Daffyd.”

     “Thanks Mike, you too,” Daffyd replied.

     “Well, that’s that,” said Bryce. “Man, I wish I could see her face when she gets the call from the school.”

     “If Mike gets to it quickly enough you just might. We have a whole eight days left with them here,” said Daffyd with a smile.

Chapter 11

Tender Care

     The first few days of Trisha and Leal’s vacation went smoothly for all those that were left behind. Samantha, Seanna and Bryce got into a routine. Bryce did breakfast, Seanna lunch and Samantha made dinner. They took turns doing dishes and they all pitched in with the house work. Daffyd even helped with a few small chores like folding laundry. He felt a little weird letting them fold his underclothes. The second afternoon Samantha was in the kitchen washing up some vegetables that she had just picked out of the garden. Daffyd came in and offered to help.

     “I am just about done. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll make you some tea,” she replied. “Is there anything special you’d like for dinner? I was thinking of making a soup out of all these fresh veggies and some chicken.”

     “Sounds good to me. Chicken soup is always good comfort food. My mom used to make it whenever we weren’t feeling good,” said Daffyd.

     “Are you having a rough day?” she asked.

     “I am feeling a little fluey today. It’s the nature of the beast. Sometimes I get the chills and the aches. That’s how this all started. I thought it was just a case of the flu…but two years later it’s the same old, same old,” he answered.

     “What can you do for the symptoms?”

     “Not much, with all the other junk they pump into me, I just have to tough it out. But it’s not too bad today. So can you make biscuits?” he asked trying to change the subject.

     “I can do a pretty decent cat head,” she said.

     “A what head?” he asked with a frown.

     “Cat heads, they are a cheaters version of a rolled biscuit. I’ve never been able to get the han
g of the super soft round biscuits. So I do the ones that you mix up and drop them on the pan. They are kind of lumpy and bumpy and my dad always called them ‘cat heads’.”

     “Then would you mind serving some cat heads with your soup tonight? I think there is some more of Trisha’s homemade strawberry rhubarb jam left in the fridge too,” he
asked.

     “Oh
, that does sound good, hot biscuits with real butter and homemade jam. I think I’ll skip dessert and just make extra biscuits,” she said.

     “I think I’ll go and take a short nap before we eat. If I am not down before dinner is done, can you send Bryce up to wake me?” Daffyd asked.

     “Will do. Sweet sleep,” she said.

     Samantha had just put two pans of biscuits in the oven when Bryce and Seanna came in from the pool. She shooed them up to change and forgot to ask Bryce to wake up his uncle. She took off her apron and decided to run up and do it herself while the biscuits were baking. The soup was about done, and the table was already set. She quickly headed upstairs and knocked on Daffyd’s door. When no one answered, she cracked the door and peaked in. Daffyd was tangled in the blankets
on his big bed. She could see that he was soaked in sweat. She hurried over to the bed and felt his head. It was hot. He was still sleeping but was tossing in the bed. She laid her hand on his chest and tried to wake him.

     “Daffyd, can you hear me?” He opened his eyes, but they never focused in on her.

     Samantha stuck her head out the door and yelled for Bryce. He came running, pulling his shirt over his head. Seanna came out of her room close behind him and they hurried down to Daffyd’s room.

     “What’s wrong?” asked Bryce.

     “He’s burning up. He said he felt fluey earlier and he came up to take a nap before dinner. He isn’t responding to me,” she said with her voice full of concern.

     “This has happened before. I’ll call the doctor and see if we can give him something to reduce his fever. Could you get some cold water and
a wash rag and try to cool him down. We need to get him out of those blankets too,” he said as he picked up the phone.

     Seanna ran downstairs for a bowl and some ice, while Samantha untangled Daffyd. Then she went to his bathroom for some wash rags, running one under cold water.  By the time she got back into the room, Bryce was trying to get his uncle to swallow some pills.
Bryce had obviously done this all before. He was able to get the pills in his mouth and Daffyd’s reflexes took over from there. The pills were down.

     “That should help bring his fever down. The doctor says he can take
these every four hours as needed. Did he eat anything today?” he asked.

     “He had some tea and toast again this morning. But I can’t remember him having anything else,” she answered.

     “We should see if we can get him cooled down and then try and get him to drink something. When he gets this hot he can dehydrate real quick,” said Bryce.

     Seanna returned with the bowl and ice. She s
et it on the table and Samantha wasted no time dipping the cloth in, wringing it out, and laying it on Daffyd’s forehead. Bryce grabbed a dry pair of pajamas out of the dresser and started taking Daffyd’s wet clothes off. Seanna offered to go and make sure dinner wasn’t burning not wanting to get in the way. Soon they had Daffyd in dry pants and opted to leave off the shirt.

     “He’ll go from hot to cold. So if he gets cold we can just wrap him in the blankets again. But for now we can cool him down better without his shirt,” he explained.

     They each had a cold rag. Samantha bathed his face and head, while Bryce did his torso and arms. Soon Daffyd calmed and he stopped tossing on the bed. Seanna returned with a bottle of water and let her mom know that she had taken the biscuits out of the oven and turned the soup way down. It took Bryce and Samantha to lift up Daffyd’s head as Seanna held the bottle to his mouth. They were able to get him to drink about a fourth of the bottle, before he pushed it away. No sooner had they laid him down and he started shivering. They bundled him up in the blankets and tucked them in around him. After a bit he was lying still and he seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

     “He’ll probably sleep for awhile now. The fever hasn’t broke but the meds will kick in soon,” said Bryce.

     “Why don’t you two go and eat and I’ll sit with him,” offered Samantha. “I can call you if I need you. I’d hate for all that food to go to waste. He asked me to make the biscuits earlier, now he won’t even be able to eat.”

     “We’ll put some away for him. He loves them. These episodes can last a couple of hours or a couple of days. He may be feeling better before the
night is over,” Bryce explained.

     “Should we bring you something, Mom?” asked Seanna.

     “Sure as long as he is sleeping, I can have a cup of soup. Butter me a biscuit and put some of Trisha’s jam on it too,” answered Samantha.

     Soon Bryce brought up a tray for Samantha. Seanna had included a thermos with just plain broth for Daffyd for later. Samantha ate at Daffyd’s desk, keeping her eye on the patient. He continued to sleep. When the kids were done eating, they came up to see how everything was going. Bryce offered to stay with his uncle while the girls cleaned up and did the dishes.
He ran to his room to grab something to read while he was sitting with his Uncle. Samantha left the broth for Daffyd and reminded Bryce to call if he needed them. As the girls finished up dishes, they talked about the events of the afternoon.

     “Bryce seemed so calm and I was freaking out. Were you scared, Mom?” asked Seanna.

     “When I first saw him I was. But after Bryce came, I remembered what Daffyd said this morning about his cancer having flu like symptoms. This has obviously happened before. Mostly I just feel helpless. Whenever you used to get sick, when you were little, I always felt the same way. All you can really do is make them comfortable and pray. When I was bathing his head I prayed for the fever to leave,” answered Samantha.

     “That’s what I did when I came down to check on dinner too. I knew I could pray out loud and Daffyd wouldn’t hear me,” said Seanna.
“So…now what? Do we just leave Bryce up there to take care of him?”

     “I feel like I am not doing my job by letting him do it. I think I’ll go talk to him. You two could watch a movie or something tonight and I can stay with Daffyd,” Samantha offered.

     “Daffyd has tons of movies in his media room. I can make some popcorn and smother it in butter while you go talk to him. If he doesn’t want to leave, then you come and watch one with me. Ok?” Seanna asked.

     “Sure, one of us will be meeting you there then.
Thanks,” said Samantha.     When Samantha got back to Daffyd’s room Bryce was pacing and Daffyd was still sleeping.

     “How is he doing?” she asked.

     “I got him to drink some of the broth earlier and a little water. Now he’s sleeping like a baby again. He started getting hotter again, so I gave him the meds again. It was half hour early, but that should be fine,” he answered.

     “Seanna wanted to know if you were up for a movie and popcorn. I could stay with your Uncle,” said Samantha.

     “If you’re sure you don’t mind, that would be great. I haven’t been able to read much and I am tired of just sitting. I’ll check in after the movie.”

     He made a quick exit while he could and Samantha checked their patient again. She tucked the blankets up around his chin and felt his forehead. He wasn’t overly hot so the meds must have kicked in. She picked up the book that Bryce had forgotten and saw that it was a bible, so she sat down and opened up to psalms ninety-one and started reading.

     Bryce and Seanna were in the media room and Seanna was curled up on one of the couch
es, holding a pillow in her lap while Bryce was browsing the selection of movies. They were carrying on a running conversation as Bryce held up DVD cases. Seanna would shake her head ‘no’, make a face, or say ‘maybe’ to each title. The maybe pile was growing, but they hadn’t chosen anything. They were talking about their families again. The conversation started with Seanna remembering going to one of the movies with her Dad when she was little.

     Soon they agreed on something and Bryce popped it in the player. Seanna had eaten most of the popcorn, so they went back to the kitchen to pop another batch. Before long they were both
comfy on the couch and Bryce had the remote in his hand. Just before he pushed play, Seanna asked if he minded waiting for a bit.

     “Sure, what’s up?” he asked.

     “There is something bothering me and I guess I need to talk to someone about it. Talking about my Dad has it all bugging me again. Do you feel like letting me unload?”

     “Shoot,” he said.

     “Well it’s about Dad.” Seanna said as she picked at the pillow in her lap. “I remembered something else.”

     “
And what did you remember?” asked Bryce.

     “When I was in grade school I used to walk to the store after school. Mom always had papers to grade and I liked hanging out with Dad. One day I had gotten an ‘A’ on this science project that he had helped me on, so I ran almost the whole way there. When I got to the store, Dad wasn’t at the counter. Whenever he wasn’t there, it usually meant he was in his office in the back. So I headed back there and I could hear voices coming from the office. The door was cracked so I peaked in. I shouldn’t have listened at the door, but I did.
”