whose lives have no fears, no dreads.
To whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly,
and brings nothing but sweet dreams."
- Bram Stoker
Chapter 17
The Accident
"Mummy!"
Max awoke with a start and clutched the blankets closer to his chest, his eyes searching the room. The crack of light from the door stretched across Nick's belongings. The room - indeed even the blanket - smelled like Nick. Max closed his eyes tight as shadows snuck around him and breathed in the smell of his friend. His best friend.
Suddenly, Max realized what had happened. He screwed his eyes even tighter shut and shook his head. "No, no, no, no," he whispered, shaking. He pushed the blanket away from himself and looked down at his pants.
Crawling out of bed, he looked at the mess and pushed his box away from it so it wouldn't get ruined. He began pacing across the room, wringing his hands. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't change, he didn't have any other clothes. He paced even harder, walking the line of the light that poured in through the crack in the door.
Suddenly the door creaked open and Raine popped her head into the room. "Max?" she asked, reaching for the switch to Nick's lamp. She turned it on and squinted against the sudden illumination. Her eyes were bleary and her hair was kind of sticking up funny.
Mortified, Max covered himself and crouched on the floor, his hands cupped over his lap so she couldn't see. He shook his head, trembling as he ducked behind the bed, peeking over the mattress at her.
"Max are you okay?" Raine asked. She took a couple more steps into the room, and the smell hit her and she looked down at the bed. The dark spot was pooling out quickly, spreading across the sheets. Raine pulled the box off the bed and put it in the corner by Nick's closet and started pulling blankets off quickly, hoping she'd come before it had a chance to seep into Nick's mattress.
Max started to cry.
"Oh Max," she said, "It's okay. Really. I just gotta change this and you'll be good as new."
Max's eyes continued to overflow with tears as Raine balled up the bed linens and tossed them to the door. The mattress was fine, she'd caught it before it'd gone all the way through. She rounded the bed and pulled open the bottom drawer of Nick's dresser, where she knew he kept all his sheets - she'd put them away for him every odd Thursday for the past four years, while he'd done the same for her on evens. "See?" she unfolded a blue striped sheet set and carried it to the bed. "Look at this."
But Max was still crying, even after she'd tucked the sheets in and replaced his box onto the bed and put the dry blanket back on.
Raine knelt down next to Max on the floor and studied his red, blotchy face for a long moment before it dawned on her. His pants had to be soaked, too. She stood up and went back to Nick's dresser and pulled out a soft, kooshy, bright red sweatshirt that would hang miles too long on Max's little frame. "I don't know where Nick put your bag, but this should do the trick for tonight at least, right?" she asked, holding up the sweatshirt.
Max nodded.
Raine handed it to Max and turned away while he changed. When she turned around again, the sleeves on the sweatshirt were hanging twice as long as his little arms and the waist band was touching his knees. With his red converse sneakers on, he looked a bit like a McDonald's Fry Guy. She knelt down and reached for the wrists of the sweatshirt arms and started to roll the cuffs back so Max's little hands would show.
She looked into his sopping wet eyes as big giant tears rolled down his cheeks and her heart had a flibbety-flop kind of snapping feeling in response. She reached up with her palms and pressed them to Max's cheeks and gently wiped his tears away with her thumbs. "Shhh," she whispered, "It's okay. It's all better now. I'll wash these and it'll be our secret, okay?" she asked.
Max looked at Raine's wide eyes and wondered if he could trust her. Nick seemed to, he reasoned, and he trusted Nick okay. He nodded his head, hoping that Nick was right to trust her, that she wasn't really a monster with a pretty disguise.
Raine smiled and smoothed his hair and kissed his forehead - something Max wasn't sure if he liked or not - and she stood up and tossed his wet pants into the pile by the door. "Ready to go back to sleep?" she asked.
Max nodded.
Raine helped him back up into the bed and Max curled up, once again, in the box, the blanket to his chin. She smiled and turned to pick up the laundry, when she thought of something and turned back. She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked in at Max. "Nick thinks you're the butterfly," she whispered to him.
Max looked at her.
"He thinks one day you're going to break out of this cocoon," she said, running her hand along the inside edge of the box, "And that when you do, you'll be a beautiful butterfly."
Max felt his throat get hot and tickly and he pressed his nose into the blanket, taking in Nick's scent again.
Raine smiled, then stood up, "Goodnight," she said quietly.
She bent to collect the laundry and rolled it up before tucking it under her arm to bring to the basement to wash. She was just about to leave the room when she heard him say, barely above a whisper, "Butterflies don't wet the bed."
Raine turned back and repositioned herself on the edge of the bed again. She reached out and took Max's hand and stroked it gently with her thumb. "But little boys who are scared do," she said.
Max's eyes met Raine's. "Even Nick?" he asked.
"Yes, Max, even Nick," Raine answered, nodding. "In fact, I bet if you ask Nick in the morning he'll tell you he did it, too."
Max stared at Raine for a long moment, then he asked, "Do you think Nick loves me?"
Raine nodded. "I know Nick loves you."
Max swept a fist over his little eyes, pushing tears away. His tiny little nose flared. "Okay, good," he said, content with that answer.
Raine smiled, "Okay," she agreed, "Good."
