Tonight, Gabby came to me clutching her stomach. Her face was green and her eyes filled with tears.
“My stomach hurts!!”
I hurried her to the bathroom where we stood near the toilet for several minutes. Nothing.
I pulled her hair into a ponytail, helped her into her nightgown, and walked her to her bed. I tucked her under the covers, placed a bucket nearby, and knelt on the floor beside her.
I smoothed her hair.
“How are you doing, sweetie?”
“Not so good,” came the answer. She was still green.
Visions of stomach viruses past danced in my head. Whiny toddlers. Middle of the night sheet changes. Running out of pillow cases. Children moaning and lying on every horizontal surface in the house. And the laundry. Oh, the laundry!
I thought of our plans for the weekend — basketball games, visiting friends, boys serving at Mass — all of which might need to be cancelled.
Gabby’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“I think I feel better.”
“No, you don’t sweetie. Stay in bed.”
“I think I’m okay.”
“How could you be? You haven’t even thrown up yet.”
“Well … ” Gabby hesitated. “Do you think … maybe … you can feel sick from eating too many Oreo Cakesters
I looked at my daughter. The color was fast returning to her face.
“And,” she continued, “If you eat too many Oreo Cakesters and then you spin for a really long time really hard on the Sit N Spin
Thank you, God.