I got the measles when I was just twelve. As I had a mild case..very mild...I enjoyed having time off school just before summer break. It was a gift.
I was told to stay inside but the weather was soooo delicious that I begged nay pleaded with my mom to just let me go outside under the maple tree. I would stay in the shade and read on the patio.
She gave in.....and this was when I saved a life.
My baby sister...who still is...10 years younger than me was on the patio...sigh...large families...and my payment for being on the patio was to watch her.
So I did.
Plump little creature, blond hair, green eyes...quite liked her. She was wearing double diapers and plastic pants and was coming up two years old. And she had a sucker in her mouth...now don't blame my mother...she was supposed to be watched by me, while my mom cooked or cleaned.
I had was reading...no kidding...Classical Greek Mythology in Song and Story. It was my elder sisters school book and I was short of reading material. Country people in the fifties didn't have 'libraries' few had any books except old school books...if that!
There was no breeze on that hot sunny June day and we were schvitzing.
Not knowing many of the words in the book I was skimming so not fully engaged.
A fly buzzed around my head and I smacked it..missing.the bugger. Just then I heard a noise. a funny sound. It was my little sister and she was choking. I looked at her and....this is true...realized that if I didn't take action soon, she would die. It was a thought coming unbidden and quite clearly. Help her or she would die.
Now they say that in emergencies time stands still or at least slows and I can tell you it does.
In my head things were moving slowly, I was analyzing whether I could get my mother outside in time or if I had to act. But physically I was already on the move.
I lept to my feet and grabbed my sister and turned her upside down slapping her on the back.
I still don't know how I knew what to do...but I did.
I heard this crack as the candy (apparently not a sucker then) hit the patio and shatter.
I immediately righted her and waited for a thank you...even though she was over young for that.
Did she thank me? Like hell! My little sister to whom I had, in my god like mode, who's miserable life I had just saved...screamed and said
"Mommy, she hit me".
The little shit!
She ran screaming and crying into the house. My mom gave me what for...and yelled at me.
I never bothered to explain. It just pissed me off. Little shit!
But mine.
Kids eh?