Intuition

We're visiting my folks for Easter. On Friday after dinner, my parents and Isaac went down to the shed where my father parks his tractors. They walked around the pond, admired the scenery, and Isaac sat on one of the tractors. The weather was getting a bit cool, in the lower 60s, but I didn't find it uncomfortable. However, once they had come back to the house, Isaac began to complain of being cold.

In fact, he huddled shivering on the couch, trying desperately to warm what he claimed were freezing hands. I sat next to him and cuddled him, but I didn't think he felt cold. He was practically crying when he announced, "We should never have gone to the tractor shed!" This was unusual, considering that it had been his idea to go see the tractors, and that he usually doesn't mind being out in the cold.

In the meantime my mother had served Isaac a dish of pie and ice cream. When Isaac hurried over to the table to eat it, he slipped on the hardwood floor and fell to the ground in tears. It wasn't a bad fall, but instead of getting up right away and proceeding to his dessert, he stayed on the floor. I put him in my lap and held him, but he kept crying.

Eventually he got into his chair and picked up his spoon, but then he began to cry even harder. He even set down his spoon, leaving the pie untasted. I asked him if he thought the ice cream was too cold. My mother offered to feed him. I suggested we could remove the ice cream if it offended. My mother scooped up a mouthful and held it out to him.

He refused the offered bite and kept crying. Finally he picked up his spoon again, but immediately set it down again, sobbing, and said "I just want to go to bed." It was 6:30 p.m.

I had begun to wonder when he got the chills, became suspicious when he recanted the tractors, grew more sure when he cried after the slight fall, was almost certain when he wouldn't eat his dessert -- but I absolutely positively knew he was sick when he asked to go to bed.

Sure enough, he had a fever of 100.6. My intuition may have been slow to get started, but it was accurate.