The Best Field Trip Ever!

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Last year my sister, Emilee had the unfortunate habit of leaving her dresser drawers open, and one day it cost her.  She was sent to clean her room, and while doing so she slipped on a scrap piece of paper, and hit her head on the corner of the bottom drawer.  I was the first one to hear her crying, so I ran to see what had happened.  Mom wasn’t far behind.  There was no blood, but Mom was dreadfully terrified that there might be some internal injury.  At twelve that night, it became very obvious that she was getting worse.  My parents decided to take her to Duke where my dad worked.  While most would say it is not the finest time to go, I did not see it that way.  To me it was an opportunity for the best field trip ever!

I am usually quite a happy and cheerful person, and this night was no exception.  I was what most people call hyper, overexcited, or bouncing off the walls.  I talked to whole way there, despite Emilee and her headache.  By the time we got there, Mom had had with me, and put me on what she calls a “silent time-out.”  Little did she know this was the worst possible thing she could do, for everything is much funnier when you have to be quiet! 

There was no wait when we walked in, so the nurse led us directly to a room.  She started to look at Emilee’s head, while I looked at the room!  It was a funny little room with a bunch of weird tools in it, I assumed those were used on the patents.  I was glad it was Emilee laying on that bed rather then me!  When she was finished she handed mom some packets of activities Emilee could do while she waited.  Mom handed it to me since evident Emilee was in no mood to do that.  I looked down only to see two huge googly eyes staring up at me.  Laughing was not an option with mom in the room; it was very obvious that she was not in the mood!  So I pulled out of the packet a coloring page with a flower on it to focus my mind on my coloring.  The nurse left and I was able to keep my composer.

While waiting for the doctor, Emilee started to speak.  She was lying in the bed; staring distantly up at the ceiling and very slowly muttering, “Stop!  Wash....... your...... hands....... when..... finished......”  My first thought was, “Oh, no!  She’s gone delirious!”  Though very worried, Mom calmly asked her what she was saying, Emilee pointed to the ceiling and said, “I was reading that sign!”  We all looked up and saw the little, red, stop sign she was reading for the employees.  I put my hands over my mouth and tried not to laugh.  I glanced up to see mom send me a serious look and decided laughing was not a good idea.  “Coloring, coloring is what I need to be thinking about,” I say in my head.

 The doctor soon came in.  His name was Dr. Fox.  I started to think about all the Foxes I knew, Dr. Fox, Mr. Fox, Pastor Fox, Teacher Fox!  I looked away hoping to hide my giggling face from mom and everyone else in the room, though it did not work so well when he came to shake my hand.  He examined Emilee’s head, and then started listing things that would be a minor head injury.  He said even if you fell from a tree and hit eight branches; it would still be minor.  I began to picture someone falling and hitting eight branches on the way down.  Boom, boom, boom!  I was trying harder to focus on my coloring, and I probably would have succeeded in not laughing, had he not gone on, such as someone getting hit in the head with a golf ball!  I had seen people in movies getting hit with a golf ball, but I again found this hilarious and pictured someone like Goliath falling to the ground due to a golf ball.  After he had finished, I had completely lost my battle not to laugh, though I tried to be quiet, and control myself.  I could feel my mother’s eyes piercing me.  I knew before I even looked up that she was giving me the “Stop before I stop you look”.  Obviously the coloring was not working well!  So I try to focus on something more interesting, ...the floor.  Trying to find pictures in the floor is like trying to find pictures in the clouds, it’s impossible!  Finally I could feel mom’s gaze shift, and I began to listen to what the doctor was saying.  He told Dad and Mom that Emilee would need to rest, without any electronics or TV, for three days, and that he would write a school note for her.  Mom quickly spoke up and said, “Oh I home school them, and we have no TV, so that won’t be a problem!”  I pulled the hat I was wearing down over my face.  Thank you, Mom for making the home school stereotype seem true!

 When we first got in the car I have to admit I was pretty sacred of what mom would say, but after nothing was said, I took the liberty and spoke first.  I spent the whole drive home talking about all that had happened to me in the ER.  After a while I glance out my window only to see a billboard with a huge golf ball that looks like it’s flying towards you.  “Oh no! We’re all going to die!” I say,  “We better turn around and go back so he can look at our minor head injuries!”  I even had Mom laughing!  After laughing, I sit back and think, “What a big sense of humor God has.  This has truly been the best field trip ever!”