By Lee Scott
This time of the year, some people are starting to feel the ominous effects of the blossoming flowers and budding trees. Yes, it is the beginning of allergy season. I thought of it when I noticed a tickle in my throat. However, by midnight, I knew it was not an allergy. I was sick. I rummaged through the medicine cabinet and found a package of Sudafed with a 2013 expiration date. Wow, had it been that long since I was sick. I swallowed the pills anyway hoping that there was at least a little bit of antihistamine left in them.
By morning, I was full blown miserable. My husband came into the living room where I was sitting with my box of tissues. “I have a weely, weely bab cold.” I told him in my most serious voice.
“You have a bad cold?” he responded.
“Yes, can I have a hug?”
“Not on your life.” he said and went to get the thermometer for me. Not the good old dependable mercury filled thermometer, but one of those digital ones. Unfortunately, every time we go to use it, the little round battery is dead. He gladly volunteered to run to the store and get a new one (healthy people hate being around sick people).
When he got back I was sitting next to a window wearing a sunhat and sunglasses.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“The sun feels so good, but my eyes are burning.”
He put the new battery in the thermometer and told me to go to bed and take my new box of decongestant, my unscented tissues and my Smith Brother’s cherry cough drops with me. Then he brought me some hot tea and took the thermometer out of my mouth.
“98.6” he said.
“No, it’s broken. It’s got to be 105 degrees. I have pneumonia.”
He told me to go to sleep and when the dogs followed him out, I knew even they did not want to be around me.
Ultimately, the cold ran its course. After a long hot shower and a fresh set of clothes, I walked into the kitchen. My spouse looked at me and said, “Now you can have a hug.” But when I approached him, he started to sneeze and with an uncertain voice he said, “I think I have an allergy.”
