Oh fuck, he thought when he sawwhat was under the shirt. It was a black camisole. The top wasedged with lace, which did little to cover the top of her breasts.Was he in heaven or hell? "This too," he said, moving a little morequickly in removing her lacy black camisole. A black bra thatperfectly cupped her round breasts was underneath. It just gotbetter, like unwrapping a gift. She just continued staring at him.Her face was hollow, and he wondered what had happened to thevibrant girl she used to be. Not just tonight, but with life ingeneral.
Finally, he broke from her gazeand, moving more quickly now, undid the button on her soaked andsoiled jeans and slid them down. She was wearing skimpy blackpanties. Between the lacy black bra and the itty-bitty panties, Benknew that he would not be able to let Nellie go after today. He didnot know what divine force had brought her out in an ice storm tohis house at the exact moment he needed, but some karmic force wasobviously working in his favor. He grasped her forearms and heldher as she stepped out of them. She was shakinguncontrollably.
"Janell, I'm gonna put you in theshower to warm up." He tried to maintain eye contact. He knew,freezing or not, if he got a good look at her in her underwear andbra, he would take her in the hallway. Right here, rightnow.
"Mommy!"
Elizabeth's head jerked up. She had fallen deepasleep while reading. "MOMMY!" she heard again, and then thetell-tale sound of Sydney retching. Elizabeth was out of bed andwas flying down the hall. Sydney was sitting in bed, with vomiteverywhere. Elizabeth didn't even know where to begin. She graspedthe hem of Syd's nightgown and whipped it over her head, and thenused the nightgown to wipe her face. She folded the covers back andhelped Sydney out of bed and into the bathroom. Elizabeth sat heron the toilet while she set about turning on the shower andstripping the bed. Luckily, Sydney had managed to contain the vomitto the bed, so other than having to wash all the bedding in themiddle of the night, cleanup was minimal.
Elizabeth was just finished washing outSydney's hair when another wave of vomiting struck her. At leastthe shower clean-up was easy. And so it went for the rest of thenight. Sydney vomited at least once an hour until about six a.m.,when she finally fell into a deep sleep in Elizabeth's bed.Elizabeth had gotten no sleep, and called in to work to stay homewith Sydney. Peter had showered, made his coffee, and headed out towork without concern for who would stay home. He just assumed thatElizabeth would. Her job paid less, and therefore, in his mind, wasless important. Elizabeth, in her fatigued state, was irked thatPeter was so transparent about his disregard for her career. Heseemed more intent on avoiding a sick child than in nurturing one.It seemed that, despite all their efforts to parent as partners,when push came to shove, it was apparent that they were not trulyequals in the relationship. Elizabeth had to force herself not toruminate about it in her current state of mind; otherwise she wouldprobably lose it when she talked to Peter again.
About noon, Elizabeth received a call from theschool nurse that Teddy had just vomited. She packed up Sydney andtrekked over to school to retrieve him. Peter never called to checkin on Elizabeth or the kids all day. By 5:30 p.m. when he arrivedhome, Elizabeth was frazzled and fried. The washing machine wasgoing constantly, although the kids were getting relatively good athitting the bucket rather than the bed or couch. Sydney had onlygotten sick once more during the day, but Teddy was still throwingup almost every hour. Elizabeth had been awake since midnight theprevious night and was not feeling that great herself. Peter, whohad been oblivious to the previous evening's goings on, seemedhonestly surprised that she did not still want to go to the booksigning.
Elizabeth texted Julia, "Mass vomiting here.Both kids. Have to back out tonight. Please tell Nancy I'msorry."
Julia promptly texted back, "Kk. Hope all getbetter soon. Will let u know how it goes."
On some level, Elizabeth was disappointed atnot being able to go. But she was so tired and worn out that sheknew it was for the best. She tried to think about what she hadread last night. She was having trouble recalling it, but was notsure if it was because she was sleep-deprived or if it was becauseit was not good. She just had an uneasy feeling about the reading.The thought of it, although she could not recall specifics, lefther unsettled and worried. Once both Teddy and Sydney had had theirchicken noodle soup and ginger ale and had been tucked into theirbeds, Elizabeth took a long, hot shower. She had been awake foreighteen hours straight, with only two hours of sleep in the pasttwo days. She felt awful, but was not sure if it was just frombeing overtired. Her head was pounding and her eyes were fuzzy. Asshe turned off the shower, the wave of nausea overtook her, and sheknew it was her turn. Good thing she had decided against going tothe book signing. Although Nancy Beemer would probably hold agrudge against her for missing this, the grudge would probably bemuch larger if Elizabeth had contaminated the whole party.Elizabeth felt like death. She felt even worse that her kids hadgone through this. At this point, her face pressed into the coolporcelain of the toilet, Elizabeth did
