Audio had a stuffy nose through the school week and over the weekend.  Sinus drainage caused her to vomit in the morning, as soon as she woke up on both Saturday and Sunday.  But, for some reason, we were surprised when she woke up on Monday morning and promptly puked.  After throwing up, Audio felt fine and behaved like a normal, five-year-old Audio.  So, after the girls were ready for school, I wrote Audio’s teacher an email to explain that she threw up in the morning, but she was not sick.  I thought that it would be a good idea to get the explanation out before Audio ran into the classroom and announced that she vomited (a new favorite word of hers) before school.  I would soon realize how much of a mistake that was. 

Most days, after I drop the girls off at school, I take a half-hour walk because I need the exercise, because I get a lot more done after putting a break between getting the girls ready for school and the rest of the day, and because I can.  After the weekend and the vomit and everything else, I was ready to go for a walk on Monday morning, after making sure that the girls were inside the school.   

As I left the schoolyard, I checked my email and saw that Audio’s teacher had responded to the message I’d sent about Audio throwing up, but not being ill.  It appeared that she had read some of it.  And, then she apparently forwarded it to the principal, who was upset about Audio “showing signs of COVID” and being sent to school.  And, while informing me that the school handbook states that students must not return to school for 24 hours after vomiting, she also said that it was all right for Audio to stay at school since she was already there.  She seemed to have about as much of a grip on her end of the conversation as she had on mine.   

In her response, Audio’s teacher seemed to be telling me that I should pick up Audio and bring her home, and that Audio could stay at school.  I wasn’t quite sure what to do, other than go back in time and stop my morning-self from sending the email to Audio’s teacher.  And, since that wasn’t an option, I stuck my phone back and my pocket and started walking, selecting a course that would end at the front door of the school a half-hour later. 

After explaining to the secretary why I was at the school, and the secretary using a phone and a walkie-talkie, I was directed to walk alone to the nurse’s office.  The nurse greeted me and then said that she had just received the string of emails (that I’d initiated with my early-morning mistake) but wanted me to explain to her what was going on.  I appreciated that she wanted to get the details from me instead of the emails. 

As I started to explain how Audio had thrown up but wasn’t really sick, the nurse turned her head toward her computer monitor and held up her forefinger in my direction, indicating that I should stop explaining because she wanted to read the emails, after all.  I paused my story while she read through the emails and tried to get the story on her own.  When she finished reading, she said, “I don’t think she read your whole email.” and then asked me to continue with my explanation.  After I finished my short story about how Audio will need to see a doctor about her allergy troubles, I walked home alone.