Chapter 2 - The Refrigerator Shelf
By eleven o'clock, the heat inside the living room was unbearable.
The AC gave out completely, blowing dead, tepid air.
I opened the front windows, but only hot dust and heavy pollen drifted inside.
Leo spent an hour in the unfinished basement, ignoring my explicit orders.
He emerged covered in thick gray dust, cobwebs trailing from his shoulder.
"Leo! What did I tell you about going behind the storage boxes?"
He gasped dramactically, reaching for his throat.
"I need my puffer, Mommy! My chest hurts!"
He ran to the side table, grabbing the red inhaler in his dirty hands.
Something inside me snapped.
The heat, the deadlines, the relentless demands on my sanity—it all collapsed on me.
I marched across the room and snatched the red device directly from his hands.
"No," I said, my voice dead and cold.
"This is not a toy, and you do not get to weaponize it when you are in trouble."
"I need it!" he shrieked, clawing at my shorts.
"You are fine!" I yelled back, pulling away from his grasp.
I walked straight into the kitchen, stepped onto my tiptoes, and shoved the red inhaler high above the refrigerator.
I pushed it back behind a box of paper coffee filters, out of his reach.
"It stays up there until you actually need it," I declared. "Now get in the bath."
He cried through the bath, breathless, gasping tears that I ignored.
At lunch, he knocked his glass of ice water onto the living room rug.
Water pooled across the floorboards, soaking the fabric.
May you like
I looked at the mess, then at his small, defiant face, flushed from the heat.
"That's it," I said, my voice eerily calm. "Timeout. Outside."
