Katie had a flair for the dramatic and a knack for recognizing the historic significance of events. Thus, in the midst of a particularly chaotic evening when she was not yet six, Katie said to me, with wide-eyed excitement, that the events in our household that night should be in the newspaper. The result was the following. The newspaper folded after its first edition, I’m sorry to say. But that first one was a classic.
MAURA THROWS UP !
KATIE BRINGS HELP
February 17, 1996. Coronado, California. A quiet evening in Coronado was shattered when Maura O’Brien, 3, threw up in her bed.
Katie O’Brien, 5, saw it happen and immediately brought help. “I was lying across from her in bed, listening to Little Bunny Foo Foo,” said Katie, just minutes after it happened. “I heard a sound like water spilling. I looked over the blankets and saw Maura throwing up. I saw it come out of her mouth.” Not even the smallest detail escaped Katie. “Maura was lying down,” Katie observed. “Then she rose up on her hands and knees and spitted out the rest. I called my Mommy and Daddy.”
Maura and Katie’s father, Tim O’Brien, was in the kitchen cleaning dishes when it happened. “I had just checked the clock,” he said. “It was maybe 9:45 at night and all was quiet. I was almost done with the dishes when suddenly I heard Katie crying out, ‘I think Maura throwed up. Mom, Dad. I think Maura throwed up.’ I grabbed a towel and ran toward the bedroom. Katie was already in the hall.”
Katie O’Brien was right. Maura was on her hands and knees in bed. She had just thrown up and was starting to cry. Tim pulled Maura’s shirt up and over her head and hustled Maura to the bathtub. “She had it on her hands, her face, her knees, even her hair. It was everywhere,” said Tim. “I rinsed her off quickly, then let the water drain. Then I gave her a real bath, and a shampoo. Poor little kid was crying and shivering the whole time.” After the bath Maura quickly calmed down and fell asleep in Claire’s room.
Francine O’Brien, Katie and Maura’s mother, got the worst of it. “It was everywhere, and there was a LOT! Lots of liquid. It was on the bed, the floor, the wall. It was on the wicker side table. I sent Katie to the living room because I didn’t want her to smell it and throw up, too. I was retching as I cleaned it up.” Francine stripped the bed and washed the room as carefully as she could. “There is still some on the wicker thing. I suppose the only way to get it really clean is to take it outside and hose it down.”
Meanwhile, Claire Rosemary, 7 months that day, had just awakened from her nap. Francine put her on the floor while she cleaned up, and Claire promptly threw up, too. “When it rains, it pours,” said Francine, phlegmatically.
Katie waited in the living room, crying a little, until things calmed down. “I didn’t want to smell the stink,” she said. But soon Katie was asleep in her Mom and Dad’s bed.
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