Jessie glanced up at Jack, who hadn’t sat down. Danny coughed on his shoulder.

“What’s taking so long?” he asked, though the woman hadn’t been gone but a minute. When she walked back to the window, another, older lady stood there with a stethoscope around her neck and a pen in her hand. She looked through the window at Danny and motioned with her hand. “Come on back.”

Around the corner, Jessie and Jack were led into the busy ER and placed in a small room. Jack sat next to the desk and placed Danny in his lap. Jessie grabbed a chair and moved it closer.

“I’m Teresa, one of the nurses here. How long has Danny been sick?”

“Only a few hours. He didn’t feel well before he went to bed, but he wasn’t coughing like this.”

Teresa placed a sensor with tape on Danny’s finger. “How high was his fever at home?”

“104.2. I gave him Tylenol right before we left.”

“Good. Most parents just rush in and don’t think.”

Teresa asked a series of other questions. Danny’s weight, previous illnesses, immunization status. Allergies to medicine. Jessie answered everything while the nurse wrote feverishly.

She unplugged the sensor attached to Danny’s finger from the machine but kept it dangling on him. “His pulse ox is low; it’s a good thing you came in.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Jack asked.

“If left alone,” she confirmed. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of your little boy.”

Neither Jessie nor Jack corrected the nurse.

“His temperature is still high, 102.5. I’m going to give him some ibuprofen.”

“Is that OK after he had the Tylenol?”

“It’s perfectly fine. Both medications have the same goal, but they work differently. Lots of kids have high fevers, and we bring them down with both medications all the time.” Teresa stood and waved her hand. “Come on, Dad, follow me.” Jack followed the nurse with Danny while Jessie followed Jack.

Chapter Eleven

The nurse led them into a room where she turned on a monitor and plugged in the oxygen sensor Danny wore on his finger. Jack saw the number—ninety-four—but didn’t understand the significance of it. When the number dipped to ninety-two, the machine started beeping, which he didn’t think was a good thing. At some point, the nurse left the room to find a doctor, and Danny reached for his mother.

Jessie pulled him into her lap and sat on the gurney with him. She swayed back and forth and spoke softly to Danny, who was more awake now and anxious about where he was and what was going to happen to him.

“Are they going to give me a shot? I don’t want a shot.”

Jack paced the room.

“Let’s not worry about that, buddy,” Jessie told her son. She glanced over at Jack. “Hey, did you notice that Jack gave us a ride in his truck? Cool, huh?”

Danny looked up at him. “I like your truck,” he said, glossy eyes and all.

Jack knew Jessie was trying to distract her son. “When you’re all fixed up, we should go mud wampum in my truck,” he said. “That’s lots of fun.”

“W-what’s that?” Danny asked through a cough.

“It’s when we go out in the dirt after it rains and splash the truck in the mud puddles. In Texas, mud puddles get really big.”

“I’d”—cough, cough—“like that.”

The nurse returned with a doctor at her side. “Hi, folks, I’m Dr. Shields. This must be Danny.”

Dr. Shields asked a bunch of questions while he listened to Danny’s lungs and examined his ears and throat. He glanced at the nurse and said, “Let’s get some Albuterol treatments going. When he’s finished with the first one, we’ll send him to X-ray to have a look.”

Teresa left the room and Dr. Shields started to explain what was happening.

“Danny’s never had asthma, allergies?”

“No. Not really.”

“He started kindergarten this year?”

“Yes.”

“Kindergarten exposes kids to all kinds of new and fun illnesses, I’m sorry to say. I’m going to give him a breathing treatment to open his airway, make it easier for him to breathe. Once his fever is down, he’ll probably relax and his oxygen saturation will improve. He has an ear infection, which I’ll send you home with antibiotics for, but I’ll want you to follow up with your pediatrician later this week.”

Jack’s head spun. “Does he have asthma?”

“I doubt it, since this is the first time he’s had these symptoms. Different things are blooming this time of year. Spring isn’t the only time allergies can cause issues. The winds that blow here cause havoc on many of us, even those who don’t have asthma. Let’s be safe and have his doctor follow him. We’ll take a chest X-ray to make sure we’re not missing anything and send you home with a copy on a disc.”

“OK,” Jessie uttered.

“I’m jumping ahead. Let’s get Danny more comfortable. I’ll be back in a little bit, and Teresa will be in here in a few minutes with his treatment.”

Jack held out his hand and shook the doctor’s. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

“Do I have to have a shot?” Danny asked from Jessie’s arms.

“Not this time. Unless you want one,” Dr. Shields said with a hopeful expression, teasing the boy.