MIchael Clayton of 4 year olds

Original Email From E to his friends and family:

SUBJECT: Michael Clayton of 4 year olds....

I was recently traveling from Los Angeles to Madison with my 4 year old son KP. The trip involved two flight legs; one from Los Angeles to Dallas, then Dallas to Chicago. And then a bus ride from Chicago to Madison.

The night before the trip KP had a high fever. Nothing too unusual for a four year old. We gave him some Tylenol and the fever seemed to pass. We set off early the next morning on our sojourn. It started out well. He got to see the cockpit with the pilots. And I gave KP my iPhone. He seemed in good spirits.

We landed in the Dallas airport and had 45 minutes to make our connecting flight, which, of course, was on the other side of the airport. We hustled through the moving walkways and endless terminals until we got to our plane - on time. I felt KP's forehead; he was getting warm. We got on the plane. His forehead was now really warm - like you could fry an egg on it. I pressed the airline attendant button.

"My son isn't feeling well, could you get him some water?"

She came back with the water. I guess I looked uber concerned. She asked if he was going to be alright?

"I don't know, he has a really high fever."

The airline attendant got her supervisor involved. It was escalating. We had just pushed off from the gate.

The head airline attendant said she could tell the pilot to re-doc the plane and then we could get the paramedics to come to the gangway if I wanted that because 'there's not much we can do for him at 30,000 feet.'

Paramedics?

I was starting to panic and was relaying this to SP on the phone. She was starting to panic.

Was I sentencing my child to a cooked brain? No, no, he's had a high fever before and the flight was only an hour and a half. I made the call to go for it.

As it turned out his fever broke on the flight, and by the time we landed he was doing fine.

I turned on my cell phone after we touched down. Ding. ding, ding - text messages started turning up. Some from SP, but some from SS. One said I've set you up in a hotel room not far from the airport across the street from an Urgent Care facility and right next to a drug store.

Holy crap! This had gone nuclear. Code red!

SP had called SS and he had calmed her down; albeit over FaceBook. (Sometimes interacting with SS is more immediate over the web. Imagine the movie Her). He had served as her on-line therapist while at the same taking care of our every need. He had gone into Michael Clayton mode.

I called SS. "Thank you so much, but I think KP is going to be fine and we are going to press on to Madison."

SS you are truly a wonderful friend. Thank you so much.

If you are ever in Chicago, and need a fixer, I highly recommend SS. Just don't call him; email him on Facebook and he'll be right on it.

Cheers,
E

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MY RESPONSE:

RE: Michael Clayton of 4 year olds....

too kind, but first off, you can call. calling is fine.

;-)

#rashomon

so i was having lunch when my leg buzzed. it was a facebook message from sp - not unlike a text - to those who might not know. she explained about the high fever, the plane, the bus ride, and was hoping e & k could stay with us overnight.

no prob, i said.

sp also said she hoped k wouldn't get everyone sick.

ok, right, i thought. that.

anyway, i could tell she was upset. i did my best to tell her everything was going to be ok, and i would take care of everything on my end.

i thought about texting my wife and making sure it would be ok for e and k to crash with us. but then i thought, wait, no, i'm not even going to involve her. i got this.

i quickly did the math. i added a sick kid to healthy kids, divided that by close proximity, and then multiplied the sum by a germophobic wife. then i took the total and subtracted days off from school and work and added the cost of a new couch - as pam would set fire to the old one upon e and k's departure.

i had solved for hotel room.

i called the sheraton near ohare - a ten minute free shuttle leaving every twenty minutes. there was an urgent care across the street and a walgreens down the block. if i confirmed the room now for the best rate, it would be non-refundable. so i just had to wait to talk to ek. but the trigger was set. i even had my route figured out to meet them with organic chicken soup, oxidant/vitamin enriched natural juices, and children's motrin.

well, i talked to ek after he landed and it seemed everything was ok. i conveyed as much back to sp, and left her with, 'if there's anything else i can hardly do, just let me know.'

because i didn't really do anything.

but i loved michael clayton, so i'm good with that. :-)

hope everyone is well, and that gf had a happy bday.

-s

ps. twitter parable: when you're trapped on plane, stuff happens on the ground...