Gerardo - "Oh, I cough a little."

Sometimes, I wonder. (Trite, yet...profound!)

Today's wonder? You should've never asked...

How do you throw up on the floor and not realize it?

Yesterday, I was exhausted. Most people can go back to work after a holiday and have a quiet, relaxed sort of day. They can listen to music, work at their desks, and, besides the stresses of their job, not have silly stuff to worry about.

Silly stuff like 'Oh. My. God. Tell me that is not vomit.'

I should start by explaining Gerardo. Unforgivably cute and completely earnest, Gerardo is the kind of kid that makes your day just by showing up. He draws Sonic on every single shred of paper he owns and arranges his crayons in his art box by length. He's the kind of kid that holds the door for random strangers and says "please" and "thank you" without any prodding. His desk looks like a bomb hit even after he cleans it and, no matter what, he can only find one of his two Batman gloves when it's time to go outside.

Anyway, onto the story...

It's math time and I am teaching a fabulous lesson on place value. We're working in small groups to practice identifying the tens and ones places. We're engaged, we're attentive, by God, we're learning!

I glance down and there is a puddle (a small lake, really) of clear fluid (with cherry colored chunks to give it a little something extra, I guess) under Gerardo's desk.

My thought? 'Oh. My. God. Tell me that is not vomit.'

My actual response? I give the kids a problem to work on and stroll on over to the offending desk. I asked Gerardo if he got sick and he says "Oh, I cough a little. I think (he thinks?!?!) I think I might make stuff come out of my mouth."

It did. It's all under his desk and hanging in gleaming strings from his Spiderman backpack. (Which, is no Spidey web. Thankyouverymuch.)

Good Lord. He has yacked all over the place and didn't even realize it. I think back to myself at the tender age of seven and cannot imagine myself getting physically ill, hurling, and then carrying on with my day as if nothing happened. Deciding at some point that learning was a better option than going home and being coddled.

So, Davs, this is why I don't wear dressy clothes to work. You never know when someone's gonna vomit. Hey, they might not even know they did it.