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Chapter 14: Broken rules
Ike placed his baby sister in her high chair and then turned to help
his youngest brother up in his chair without slipping. Zac didn’t
like sitting on pillows or books so
he spent most of his meals kneeling on his knees in his chair.
It was the only way that he could reach the top of the table.
“Thanks, honey,” Diana exclaimed placing cereal bowls already filled with cereal and milk on the table. “Where is your brother?”
“I’ll get him,” Ike exclaimed running off towards the bedroom.
“Mommy!”
Diana almost dropped the carton of milk. There was panic and fear in Ike’s voice.
She ran to the boys bedroom and found Ike bending over his brother and shaking him. “Mommy, Tay’s all wet and he’s not making sense.”
Diana threw the covers back to uncover a fever stricken child,
the sheets soaked from his own sweat. The little boy was thrashing
back and forth in the bed and he did not respond when she tried to talk
to him. Diana ran into the bathroom and wet
a cloth with cold water and ran back and began to try to cool him
down.
“Ike, I need you to run up to the Brinham’s and call your father. Tell him, I need him to come home, quickly!” Diana said trying to remain calm in front of her son.
Ike was out of house at a run. He ran towards the white house for a few steps but suddenly he stopped and switched directions and ran at a full run towards the opposite end of the beach. He was running towards the pink house. He and his brothers had met the lady who lived at the pink house. They had shared their cookies with her on the beach and she had told them that she was a doctor. Ike ran as fast as he could run and was panting for breath by the time he got to her house and started pounding on the door.
The woman that answered the door immediately knew something was wrong. The small boy that had visited her before with his younger brothers wasn’t smiling. In fact he looked panicked.
“Ike, what is it?”
“Miss Lily, I need you. Tay is real sick.”
Lillian Abbott took three steps back, grabbed her doctors bag and ran after her young friend who was already,heading down the beach.
Diana looked up somewhat surprised when a young black woman followed Ike into the bedroom. Ike’s simple explanation didn’t help.
“Mom, this is Miss Lily, she can help Tay.”
The young woman dressed in jogging shorts and tee-shirt with her
hair up in ponytail didn’t look much older than a teenager. She set
her bag down on the bed and opened it without hesitation and was pointing
a light into Taylor’s eyes looking for his
response. She turned around to the boys mother to reassure
her.
“Dr. Lillian Abbott, I specialize in internal medicine but at the
moment I’m working a stint at the ER at Elizabethtown. When did this
fever start?”
‘I don’t know, Ike found him like this a few minutes ago. He was fine when he went to bed last night.” Diana exclaimed.
Lillian went to work. She sent Ike out of the room and began a thorough examination of the Taylor. His temperature was 104F, and his glands were swollen in his throat but she found no other signs of distress. Finally, on the bottom of his heel of his right foot she found a small puncture mark and swelling.
“What was he bitten by?” she asked his mother.
Diana shook her head. “I don’t know. He didn’t say anything about being bitten.” She went to the door and called Ike back in the room.
“Ike, did Tay get bitten by anything yesterday?” Diana asked.
Ike shook his head. “No.”
“Were you in the playing in the ocean water yesterday?” Lillian asked.
“No, we don’t play in the ocean,” Ike denied.
“Are you sure?” Lillian questioned. “This looks like a rock fish sting. Ike this is very serious, we need to know.”
“We weren’t in the ocean, honest.”
“Rock fish?” Diana questioned.
“It’s a fish that looks very much like a rock, brown and gray. It has a very nasty sting, but it only lives in salt water.” Lillian explained. “It emits a toxic chemical, not deadly, but it causes high fevers and sometimes convulsions and its pretty painful.”
“Tay said he hurt his foot on a rock, but we didn’t see a cut,” Ike exclaimed. “We were messing around in the tidal pools.”
“Well, that explains it,” Lillian exclaimed, rummaging through her bag and pulling out a hypodermic needle. “The tides probably dumped it into one of the basins and Taylor stepped on it.
“Will he be all right?” Diana demanded.
“He’ll probably be feverish for the rest of today, uncomfortable
and tired tomarrow, and by Sunday he’ll be back to normal,” Lillian explained.
“I’m going to give him an
antibiotic and I think we should take him into the hospital for
a toxicology sample and an IV feed. Children become dehydrated very
quickly and he’s lost a lot of fluids.”
“Ike did you call your Dad?” Diana questioned.
“No. I got Miss Lily!”
Ike said with a worried tone to his voice.
“And, that was the right thing to do,” Diana exclaimed hugging
her son to him. “I’m very proud of you for making that decision.
It was the very best thing you could
have done to help your brother.”
“Ike, why don’t you run back to my house, pound on the window and get Dawn, my roommate out of bed. Tell her to bring my car down here and I’ll take Taylor to the hospital, myself.” Lillian offered. “And, while you’re there, call your Dad and tell him to met us at the hospital.”
Ike took off at run to complete his mission.
“I can’t begin to thank you enough,” Diana exclaimed gratefully.
“No thanks, required.” Lillian exclaimed. “This is what I do. Besides, I like these kids of yours, they’re sweethearts.”
“Miss Lily, is Tay sick?” Zac asked from the doorway.
Lillian held out her arms and Zac went into them willingly and with a smile. “Tay, will be just fine, but it might be a couple of days before he feels like playing again.” Lillian warned the little boy.
Zac smiled and leaned over went directly into his mothers arms. “Miss Lily will fix Tay, Mommy. She fixes people and dogs.”
The young doctor laughed at his words and explained his mother.
“That’s how we met. I was picking up an injured dog on the beach.
Your boys helped me get it back to
my house.”
“I’m very glad you are here right now, Dr. Abbott,” Diana said. “But, I think my husband and I will be having a little discussion with these boys about striking up conversations and friendships with strangers that they meet on the beach.”
The young woman nodded her head in understanding. “Actually,
I think that would be very good idea. They are very sweet and maybe
a little bit too trusting right now.
But, in their defense, everyone I’ve ever met along this beach have
turned out to be really decent people.”
Taylor mumbled something at that moment and both women turned their
attention back to a very sick little boy. Diana pulled some clean
pajamas out of drawer and began to redress him in the dry clothing.
A few minutes later, Lillian’s roommate
arrived. Diana put Ike and Zac in the backseat, strapped Jessica
into her baby seat and held Taylor secure in her arms on the trip to the
hospital.