Pulling into the yard, he saw their vehicles under the carport and remembered coming down and helping Ted put a new roof on, the month after they had moved in. “Please be all right, guys,” Arthur mumbled, getting out and grabbing his AR.
Looping the single point sling over his head, Arthur walked across the yard to the front door. “Ted, Tammy, it’s Arthur!” he shouted and heard a soft cry inside the house. “Shit,” he sighed, feeling bad for waking the baby.
He stopped at the door and waited for it to open as the baby continued to cry. Then, Arthur noticed the cry sounded weak. Grabbing the door, he opened it and was hit with rankness once again. Looking inside, he saw Tammy slumped over on the couch but didn’t see Ted.
“Tammy,” Arthur called out and she didn’t move. Knowing if he walked in and Tammy was sick or the baby, he was for sure exposed. “Sorry, Wendy. I could never live with myself for turning away from a baby,” he said, walking inside.
He stopped at the couch and saw frothy phlegm on Tammy’s mouth. Her breasts were exposed and a milk pump was in her hands. Reaching over, Arthur felt her neck but with his gloves on, couldn’t tell anything. Pulling his hand back and pulling off the glove, he felt Tammy’s neck again and felt she was cool but not ice cold and no pulse.
Moving over to the bassinet, Arthur looked down at the baby crying weakly. “Hey, Nicole,” he said softly and immediately saw the diaper was full. Looking around, he found the diapers and wipes. Taking his other glove off, he opened the diaper up.
“Wow, you’re awful little to be putting out a pile of shit like that,” Arthur told the weakly crying baby. Tossing the full diaper on the floor, he wiped Nicole off and saw her skin was very red. “You’ve been laying in that awhile, huh?” he said, trying to be gentle. He was a nurse and knew it was a very bad diaper rash.
When he put on the diaper, he picked Nicole up and let his AR hang at his side. “I hope your mom took Wendy’s advice,” he said, looking around.
After they had visited them that third day, after bringing down an evening meal and had returned home, Tammy called Wendy crying because she wasn’t making enough milk to fill Nicole up. Wendy left the house and picked up some formula and brought it to Tammy, telling her to supplement until she made the milk.
Looking around the house, Arthur sighed with relief when he saw a can of powdered formula on the kitchen counter. Grabbing a bottle from the dishrack, he saw bottled water in the corner and moved the still weak, crying Nicole to his left arm as he made a bottle. When he opened the formula, he saw it was almost empty.
“Shit,” he snapped and Nicole stopped crying and he looked down at her to see her looking up at him. “Sorry,” he said, dumping the measuring spoon of formula in the bottle and Nicole started crying again. Grabbing a bottle of water, he poured in four ounces.
“Almost,” he said, putting the nipple on and shaking the bottle hard. When the nipple touched Nicole’s lips, she started sucking hard and fast. Stepping back into the living room, he moved over and tried to move Tammy and felt that her body was stiff.
“That’s at least eight hours and judging by that diaper, I’m betting you haven’t eaten for ten,” Arthur said, moving down the hall. He found Ted on the bed, sprawled out and gray. Grabbing Ted’s leg, he found it wasn’t stiff which told him that Ted had been dead for well over a day, but Arthur was thinking closer to two days.
“I should’ve been checking up on them,” Arthur sighed, feeling guilty and then looked down and saw that Nicole was almost done eating. “We have to let that digest, princess.”
Nicole’s hair was so blonde it was white and her eyes were so blue they seemed fake. “You are still a tiny thing,” Arthur smiled at Nicole.
Moving back to the kitchen, he looked in the formula can scooping up the formula around and making calculations. “Six, maybe seven bottles,” he huffed, then looked at his watch. “We need to find you some formula.”
Putting the top on the can of formula, he grabbed a plastic bag and set it inside. Then he moved over and put six bottles from the dishrack in. Grabbing the bag, he headed to the living room and saw there were only four diapers. “And diapers,” he said, grabbing the diaper bag and putting the plastic bag inside.
Walking around, he gathered stuff up until the bottle was empty. He put Nicole on his shoulder and patted her back and she let out burp that Arthur felt in his chest. “All right, that’s what I’m talking about,” Arthur cheered, grabbing an infant carrier and the diaper bag.
Stepping outside, Kit and Kat jumped around him like: “What do you have? What do you have? Can we play with it?” Don and Daisy were sitting side by side in the yard just watching. “Kit, Kat, stop it,” Arthur snapped in a whisper, hearing Nicole breathing steady.
Putting the stuff in the back of the buggy, he went back inside and brought more stuff out. On his last trip, he stopped and looked down at Tammy. Her blonde hair was matted as her vacant eyes stared at the ceiling. “I’ll take care of her, Tammy,” he said softly. “I’ll come back and take care of you and Ted. I should’ve
