Learning How to Bend

January 21

Chelise had been having tummy problems for the past twelve hours.  For a brief while, I thought it would pass, but it never did.  Luckily for me, her vet's office opened very early during the week and I was able to have Mike take us both over there on the second Tuesday of July.  Thaddeus had been gone on July 4th, so I spent the entire day and night with Katherine, Elizabeth, and Joe.  We had walked to a local park, where Joe and Kat played frisbee while I very happily held my goddaughter in my arms.  She was in my lap as I had a book in front of me, running my fingers along the Braille and saying the words aloud to the little girl.  The child seemed to enjoy the sunshine and my story.  I never minded looking after her.  At first, the idea scared me, but now I truly adored every minute I got to spend with my goddaughter.  I had protested so vociferously when the Montrans told me they wanted me to be Elizabeth's godmother.  I thought there were far better options, but neither of them listened to any of my objections.  They believed in me.  While I had yet to babysit her independently—Joe and Kat wanted her to be a little older before they put that responsibility on my shoulders—I was starting to catch on to her mannerisms and moods even a little better than Joe on occasion.

Elizabeth had several different sounds that she would make in a day, and each one was slightly different.  Some of them meant happiness, others boredom, hunger, or discomfort.  While most were loud and obvious, a few were more subtle in nature.  Even today, I had heard what I could only describe as a low chirp, which meant Elizabeth was happy, like she was in my arms with my book.  At one point, she actually reached her hand forward and touched the page, running her tiny fingers over the bumps.  The new texture fascinated her; I made a mental note at the time to consider teaching her Braille when she was older.  When I lowered my voice and simply started talking to her, she snuggled into my side and fell asleep.

I smiled at the memory, even as I frantically worried about Chelise as I paced in the waiting area of the vet's office, biting my fingernail.  Mike had something to do for Thaddeus, so I told him to go ahead and leave.  As it was so early, I was the only individual in the long, narrow room, outside of the vet techs behind the counter.  I moved from one side of the room to the other until I thought I was going to hollow out a rut in the floor.  She had to be okay.  I had barely slept because she had been alternating between throwing up and explosive diarrhea.  I was already frazzled from lack of proper rest, but my senses felt like they were on high alert.  It was like I had drank four cups of coffee with double espresso shots in each of them.

An exam room door creaked open, and I jumped toward it after clicking twice to figure out where it was.  The veterinarian was standing in the doorway, but he moved so I could enter.  He closed the door behind me and went to stand behind the exam table, on which he rested his arms and folded his fingers together.  He had what looked like a folder open in front of him, papers neatly organized on top of it.

"Well?" I asked.

"She's going to be fine."

I exhaled loudly.

"She just caught a stomach bug while she was running around outside.  She's really dehydrated, so we've got her on fluids, and we've put her on some medications to address the vomiting and diarrhea."

"Thank heavens."

"We'd like to keep her here for observation today and possibly overnight, if that's okay with you."

"Yes, of course.  Anything to get her back to being herself." I smiled tiredly. "Thank you."

"We'll take a payment now and another tomorrow morning if necessary."

"Please let me know if anything changes?"

"Of course.  Your phone is on file?"

"Two of them, actually.  But use the first number; it's my personal rather than my work phone."