spynotes ::
  April 20, 2007
Midnight blues

It is five o'clock in the morning and the birds are singing outside my window. A pair of cardinals sit in the branch of the linden tree just outside my bedroom window and kick up a fuss every morning, as if to mock us for our weak human tendency toward sleeping past dawn. Then, as soon as the other birds wake up and join the chorus, they disappear.

I am up because at 4:54, AJ came into our room and roused me from a dream. In the dream, I was at a conference with Mr. Spy and Mr. Spy was snoring. I decided to get my own room at another hotel for the last night, because I had a presentation. Only I didn't think of this until 9:30 p.m. and it was now 10:30 and they still hadn't figured out how to check me in and the person who was helping me had disappeared. I was just starting to wonder why a small boy I sometimes see in real life on AJ's school playground was playing on the computer next to me when AJ woke me up. "I'm hungry."

"It's the middle of the night. You can have food when you get up at seven."

"But I'm starving to death!" He was near tears. His dad escorted him back to bed and then I realized what was happening. AJ was throwing up.

He had a fever when he went to bed -- in my dream-addled stupor, I had forgotten that. I went into his room and saw him standing by his bed throwing up onto the floor. I put my hand on his forehead. He was burning up.

The funny thing about AJ is that when he's sick, he is usually cheerful and he's often extremely talkative. When he was done, he chatted about his field trip yesterday and worried about whether he'd be well in time for the Little League Parade on Saturday. I listened as he changed his pajamas and wrapped him in an afghan that his aunt made for him while Mr. Spy and I changed his sheets.

After I tucked AJ back in bed with a cool, damp washcloth for his fiery forehead, I returned to bed. Mr. Spy had not been sleeping well and he decided to get up. I closed my eyes. And then the cardinals started.

So here it is, not yet six, and already I am typing.

5 people said it like they meant it

 
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