Her grandmother’s touch and watchful eye.
As she grew with all the freedom a child shouldn’t possibly need, she tested even her grandmother’s watchful eye. It was during one of those delightful family gatherings where she tested her grandmother’s watchful eye. Everyone was there, from all parts of Arizona and even California. She loved it all. She started feeling unwell. Her grandmother was obviously concerned, touching her forehead with her long fingered hands. They confirmed it; a fever. Aunt Maggie gave her Bayer Children’s aspirin.Everyone was so close and happy that even running to the outhouse to go to the bathroom seemed like a party; and it was. Outside, those who waited to go to the bathroom, started slapping different parts of exposed skin killing the devious mosquitoes that landed there to suck one dry of one’s blood. Afterwards, it was the extreme itching that would drive one crazy. Mosquito repellent must have been one of those things that was still in the invention time machine. A flashback came to her as she remembered the Sears catalog pages used as wall paper inside the outhouse. There were two seats; not an appealing thought to have to share this little room with anyone. Nick and Janis weren’t present, perhaps taking full advantage of all the babysitters around laughing, singing, eating, and carrying on as they did.

So the world literally started spinning while petting one of the neighbors’ dogs who invited himself to the party and the world continued to spin. Her grandmother was watching her and asked her how she was feeling. But she was just a child and describing symptoms wasn’t her forte’ at that age. Then her grandmother asked Aunt Maggie where the bottle of Children’s Bayer aspirin was. Aunt Maggie and the older cousins really didn’t know. So that’s when everyone panicked. Everyone started looking for the bottle and they eventually found it, empty. Lorie remembered how she struggled with the top to pry it open with her teeth. Suddenly she took center stage and the audience seemed rather peculiar to her, all staring with such worry and concern. No one knew what to do. The nearest hospital was at least an hour’s drive away. But then her grandmother waved her hand and everyone calmed down. She walked to her granddaughter and asked her to open her mouth. Her grandmother’s fingers went down her throat and the result was an obvious pink frothy splatter that spilled onto the ground.

“Why I thought of Linda Blair in the “The Exorcist” at this moment defies rational thinking remembering the possessed actress spewing out green. Might was at least pink.”