Evelyn expected to find some enjoyment in the peace and quiet of an empty house but she only really felt empty. Sure enough, she missed the constant presence of her son clinging to her shirt or the weight on her knee as he leaned back and played with her hair while she worked. In all honesty, she was actually pretty glad when it finally came time to pick him up.
She watched the school gate through the car window and waited to see Hunter emerge from the school and begin walking down the little narrow path beside the school, side by side with Luz, the pair of them chatting up a storm about something, probably snakes, Evelyn guessed, based on how Luz was spinning around in circles as she walked, waving her arms around like they had minds of their own and hissing at Hunter who giggled at her antics.
Evelyn's heart just about melted upon seeing him with such a genuine smile on his face and that smile got even wider once he looked up and spotted her car, waving at her. Luz joined in the waving just as enthusiastically, nearly tripping over herself with dizziness which made Evelyn laugh as she waved back.
But before he noticed his mother waving back, Hunter's attention was caught by something else over to his right and he appeared to be looking for something off in the distance.
And he apparently found it because he froze suddenly like a deer caught in the headlights, maybe even in a literal sense as he seemed to be watching a car that conveniently disappeared around the corner before Evelyn had the chance to get a proper look at it. Whatever it had been though, it had certainly spooked Hunter, that much was clear.
Luz paused too, noticing her friend's sudden change in demeanour. She gave him a quick tap on the shoulder and when that yielded no reaction, she waved her hand in front of his face, even poking his cheek.
It was only when Evelyn rolled down the window of her car and called out to him that he seemed to be broken from his trance, quickly spinning around to refocus on her, forcing a fake smile.
He continued down the path, running up to the car and clambering in rather quickly, leaving poor Luz to chase after him.
"You need a lift, hunny?" Evelyn asked the girl through the open car window.
"No, I'm good Mrs-Hunter's-Mom! My mom's here to pick me up today, she's just down the street. She says she going to take me to the clinic so she can show me this husky they brought in earlier! She says it's super fluffy, like a wolf! I'm gonna take tons of photos to show Hunter!" She panted, still trying to catch her breath.
"Okay then," Evelyn chuckled at her enthusiasm, "You have fun and tell your mom to come over sometime for coffee. Hunter's desperate to show you all his new books!"
"Yay! I'll ask her. Bye-bye, Mrs-Hunter's-Mom!" Luz beamed, running off again before Evelyn had the chance to correct her.
"Can we go home now, Mommy?" Hunter's voice came high and a little frantic from the backseat, a stark contrast to Luz's cheerful tone.
"Yep, that's exactly where we're going." She smiled back at him through the rearview mirror.
"Okay..." He replied, relief flooding his tone, even if his leg began bouncing up and down, almost impatiently.
She turned the car on and was just about to start driving when she remembered something. "Oh, that's right! Somebody's here to see you! He's been waiting very patiently all day."
She did not like the way he froze up yet again, just like he'd done a few minutes ago so she was quick to grab Flapjack from the front seat and toss him at Hunter in the back seat, not wanting to see that fearful look on his face for a moment longer.
Hunter relaxed a bit more now that he had his beloved companion back in his arms, giving the bird a tight, loving squeeze.
"So, how was school?" She said, starting up the conversation as she pulled out onto the road.
"Fine." Was the only simple reply she received from the boy in the back.
She paused, anticipating something more but apparently, that's all she would be getting.
"What? Just fine? Come on now, you're going to have to give me a bit more to work with here! Surely something fun happened?"
He considered for a moment. "Well, my teacher is going to let me pick a new reading book. She said I can choose one of the big kid books because she knows I can read really well."
"See! That's amazing! And you've been reading a ton lately, trying to improve. She's more than right to let you pick out a more difficult book. Well done!"
He just hummed, not thinking too much of it, apparently.
Dinner that night ended up mostly silent. Evelyn tried her best to spark up a conversation with Hunter about school, or just anything else he'd be willing to talk about really, but he only ever responded with small hums or nods, more focused on prodding at his foods as opposed to actually eating any of it.
He took so long to finish his meal, in fact, that he was still nudging his food around the plate by the time Caleb arrived home from work. Caleb came to join them at the table, giving Evelyn a quick kiss and sitting down with his arm around Hunter.
"How was everyone's day?" He asked the two of them, still slightly flushed from the walk back up the hill from the train station.
"Good!" Evelyn replied, happy to finally have a conversation with someone who wasn't so distant, "Hunter's got some news, don't you?"
He looked up a little dazed at the sound of his name with a small questioning hum, obviously having not been paying much attention.
"What happened at school?" She prompted.
Clearly, there was a lot already on his mind because it took him a moment to remember what she meant. "Oh, um... My teacher is going to let me pick one of the big kid books now because she says I can read really good."
"Oh, well done kiddo!" Caleb cheered, giving him a pat on the arm. Hunter simply nodded and continued to stare at his plate. "Are you not proud of yourself?" Caleb frowned.
"I'm just tired..." Hunter replied. He certainly did sound pretty exhausted, Evelyn would give him that.
Caleb inspected his plate and the food that had been on his fork for a good ten minutes, still untouched. "You've not eaten much. Are you feeling alright?"
"My stomach hurts..." Hunter mumbled, leaning over to press his forehead down against the table.
"Are you not feeling well?" Evelyn asked. He shook his head.
"Maybe we should get you to bed then," Caleb suggested, exchanging a worried look with Evelyn. He received a nod in response so he hauled his son up and carried him up the stairs while Evelyn finished off her dinner.
Once he returned, he grabbed himself a portion of food and sat down at the table again, this time with a long sigh, rubbing his temple.
"Is he alright?" Evelyn questioned, glancing over attention staircase as if she expected him to be there, listening in.
Caleb poked at his food a bit, just like Hunter had previously been doing. "He did look pretty pale. He fell asleep pretty much as soon as I put him down."
"He didn't sleep great last night. Seemed like nightmares."
Caleb hummed with a thoughtful frown, shovelling some pasta into his mouth.
"Actually, I should probably mention this," Evelyn recalled, finishing off her mouthful of food before she continued, "This morning, when I was helping him get dressed for school, I noticed some bruises on his side. Pretty bad bruises."
Caleb paused. "Did you ask him about it?"
"Yeah. He said he fell over while doing a cartwheel over at Philip's but... I don't know."
"What do you mean?" Caleb's tone took on something more serious.
"Well, I've just got this feeling that there's something more to this that we're not getting." She sighed.
"Like what?"
"Well, don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that he starts acting weird after staying at Philip's house then comes home with bruises and doesn't mention that to us?"
"Are you trying to say that my brother is the reason he's been acting weird and has a couple of bruises?"
There was something accusatory in Caleb's tone that she did not like.
"I'm trying to say that we shouldn't rule it out." She said emphatically, "Sure, that's your brother, but this is our son."
Caleb shook his head. "Philip wouldn't hurt him. You've seen what he's like with him, he loves that kid!"
"People aren't always who you think they are, Caleb."
They held eye contact for a long moment, challenging the other to continue. Neither of them did.
Caleb sighed and held his head in his hands, wiping them down his face like they could peel away his exhaustion. "I'm not having this conversation right now. I just got home."
He stood up, placed his empty dish in the sink, and trudged up the stairs.
Evelyn bit her lip. Why wasn't he seeing that there was obviously something wrong here?! She understood that it was his brother she was accusing and she'd be having a pretty rough time too if it were one of her sisters being accused but surely he could still put that aside just for a moment to make sure his son was okay.
She let go of a heavy sigh and followed after him up the stairs.
Late that night, Evelyn was woken by a sharp, quick movement beside her. She jolted a little, blinking her eyes open and peered up into the darkness to try and figure out what was going on. In her sleep-muddled mind, she could just about piece it together. Hunter was sat up, hands bunched so tightly in the sheets that his knuckles were turning white, and he looked around frantically, breaths coming out in harsh gasps.
Evelyn shifted to sit up, limbs becoming partially tangled up in the sheets, and jumped to trying to calm him down, catching Caleb turning over to watch out of the corner of her eye. "Hey! Hey! It's just a bad dream! You're okay."
Hunter spun to look at her with wide, panicked eyes, calming ever so slightly upon realising who he was with.
She held her hands up in a placating gesture. "That's right, you just had a bad dream. You're okay now. I've got you."
His hands latched onto hers, squeezing tight. She let him, squeezing back and making small shushing sounds in the hopes of grounding him.
Just as her efforts seemed to be making some progress though, he suddenly froze, going tense. Before Evelyn had a chance to react, he vomited all over the bed.
Where her brain was still struggling to catch up, her mom instincts kicked in and she hoisted him up and rushed him to the bathroom just In time for another round of vomit to splash into the toilet.
She kneeled down beside him on the bathroom floor, holding back his hair and rubbing comforting circles on his back to try and soothe him while he sobbed and continued to gag and vomit.
Once he finally seemed to be finished throwing up, she grabbed a cloth from the sink and used it to wipe the sick and saliva dripping from his chin. She flushed the toilet and gave the dirty cloth a quick rinse in the sink before helping him up and handing him a toothbrush. She helped guide his shaking hands to brush his teeth while also trying to calm the miserable sobs that shook his small frame.
Leading him downstairs to the kitchen, the house seemed almost eerie in the quiet dark. She grabbed a glass from beside the sink and filled it up with water, handing it to Hunter who nearly spilt it down himself, the water in the cup sloshing around dangerously close to the edge from how much he was trembling.
He put the half-empty cup down after a few minutes, deciding he was done with it, and let Evelyn scoop him up in her arms to be held like a toddler. She rocked him back and forth and rubbed circles on his back with the palm of her hand until his sobs calmed to just shaky breaths and occasional whimpers and then she carried him back to bed, grateful to see Caleb had changed the sheets and cleaned up the mess while they were gone.
She laid Hunter down carefully, retrieving Flapjack from where he'd rolled off the bed and returning him to his rightful owner, before climbing into bed herself and pulling the covers over them.
Hunter curled up against her and grabbed for her hand again so she held it, rubbing her thumb against his knuckles in a soothing motion.
"Night night." She whispered, giving him a small kiss on the forehead and holding him close as they fell asleep