It's the call no parent wants to get

My daughter forgot her lunchbox at school. Doesn’t sound like a calamity, right? Well, apparently it is when you hadn’t eaten anything but the three leftover chicken balls you mum packed.

“But I’m starrrrving,” she complained on the way to karate from violin lessons. She was expecting to save her food for this time. I sent her into the karate school with Miss Dramatic clutching her stomach.

So I wasn’t very surprised to get a call not 15 minutes later from the Sempei. What was surprising was that he was talking about Middle Child.

The guy sounded really upset, totally freaked out that Middle Child’s hands were purple and ice cold. Sure enough, when we got there, his hands were just as he described them.

So I called the government’s health help line and they said he was just cold. I took his temperature as the nurse requested and it read 33.3 C. She then told me to put his hands in a bucket of lukewarm water. They pinked up a bit. She suggested I throw him in warm clothes after a nice bath and see a doctor tomorrow.

We’ll see a doctor later today and his hands look totally normal now. But, ooh, a little freaky.

I just got some wicked plaid fabric to make the husband a pair of these.