Date: Thursday 8th August 2024
Nick’s POV
When I wake up I see Charlie, sat up with his head against the headboard, scrolling through some form of social media on his phone. He looks a lot better than he did yesterday, and I hope the rest did him some good, especially as we have a very busy day ahead of us.
When he notices I'm awake, we exchange pleasantries, before I say “Come on. We need to leave in half an hour.”
To which we both get up and dressed, before heading into the kitchen for breakfast.
Once we’ve made our breakfast, we sit down at the table and begin to eat. During breakfast, to reassure him, I say “You know we can stop if it get’s too much. I mean walking 43 and a half kilometres is hard for anyone, let alone, well, you know.”
“Yes, I know. But I'm feeling a lot better today, and if it gets too much or I need a break for a while, there’s always you’re back.”
We chuckle at the last remark, before finishing our breakfasts. I then go make our packed lunches, for the picnic we’re planning to have half way through, before everyone gets herded out of the house by mum, as we need to begin the walk by 8 otherwise it will never be completed.
As our finishing point, is different to our starting point, upon our arrival mum and Uncle Rich drive to the end point, leave a car there then drive back in 1 car. Luckily they make it back just before 8 meaning that, in theory we should be able to do it.
As we begin the walk, I notice Charlie walking fairly slowly, but when I query him about it, he just says he wants to pace himself – which is fair enough. Especially as all those who have practically ran on ahead will have very little energy left at the end.
We slowly make it through the first section, and after 5 hours of walking we reach the next, but as there are picnic tables, we stop for lunch as it’s practical. We also stop for lunch because its 13:00 and the twins have been complaining that they're hungry for the last hour.
We spend about an hour eating lunch, before we continue to walk. I can tell Charlie’s getting exhausted, but I know him well enough to know that he wont ask for help until he really needs it, so I make a mental note to keep an eye on him.
Towards the end of the 2nd stage, I stand in front of him and tell him to get on my back, as watching him struggle this much is to painful for me to watch. Thankfully he accepts without complaint, although I think it’s because he would have asked for me to carry him soon anyway.
He ends up staying on my back for about 1½ hours, during which I'm 99% sure he ended up falling asleep. When he asks to be put down, we only have about 1 hour to go so I put him down and hold his hand all the way to the finish line. When we get to the car, it was decided that Tilly, Leo and Charlie would go in the car with Mum and Uncle Rich, and Uncle Rich would just drive them all straight back to the villa, while mum drove back to get the rest of us.
Before they left, I told Uncle Rich, that if Charlie was asleep when they got back, to just leave him, and I would carry him in once I got back, which he seemed fine with, although I cant think of a reason why he wouldn’t be fine with it.
When I got back to the villa, with mum, David and Aunt Diane, mum and I went to check the other car to see if Charlie was there, and surprise, surprise, he was. And he was fast asleep. So I quietly opened the car door, and carefully lifted him out, while mum shut the door and I carried him to the front door. Mum then opened the front door for me, and shut it behind us once we were all inside. She then went with us to our room to open the door, and then went in the kitchen, presumably to sort out dinner.
I gently placed Charlie on the bed, before proceeding to take his shoes and socks off. I then took him out of his jeans, knowing he’d be more comfortable without them, before tucking him in, and leaving the room to let him sleep.
About half an hour later, dinner was ready, and Charlie still hadn’t emerged from our room, so I took his plate to our room. When I entered he was still fats asleep, so I gently woke him – as he needs to eat – and put his plate beside him so he could eat it when he was ready. I then left him in there, and joined the others round the table where everyone had started eating.
After I had finished eating, I went back to our room to see how he was doing. He was sat up (and awake), back against the headboard, on his phone with a nearly empty plate beside him. This is pretty good going, considering the plate was quite a bit fuller than normal as Uncle Rich had dished up and didn’t know how much he normally ate.
After a small conversation, he decided to come out to the living room with everyone, for half an hour before retiring to bed.
After another half an hour, I joined him as I was also very tired, and he was already fast asleep. I fell asleep, with my arms wrapped round his abdomen, with my hands resting on his bump, knowing that 2 out of my 3 favourite people (the third being my mum) were in my arms, being protected from any evil by me.