I'm not playing hookie today

My step-mom had a rule when I was growing up. (Actually, she had many - buckets full as a matter of fact - but only one I'm addressing today.) Unless you were sick enough to flop a vital organ on the dining room table, you were going to school. And kidneys didn't count unless it was both of them. My step-brother could come closest, his cystic fibrosis enabling him to just about hock up a lung. I was jealous. (Of the fact that he got to stay home occasionally, not the CF.) Other than my migraines, I was as healthy as a horse and those migraines usually were the result of a long school day. Off I went to school, bitterly resenting my inability to hock up organs at will.

But I get it now.

It wasn't concern for our schooling that had her insisting on such a strict line. It wasn't even about wanting the house to herself when she worked nights. It was about tempting Fate. If you stay home when you're not deathly ill, Fate will notice.

Let me give you an example. If you stay home on. . . gee, I dunno, maybe a Monday 'cause your sinuses are stuffy and you have a little headache, by Wednesday your entire chest will feel like a Monster Truck ran over it. Even your shoulders will be sore from coughing and you'll have to dope yourself up with the good drugs.

(Although to be honest, I don't blame this on Fate so much as that fucking two hour meeting I had to attend yesterday. When you're the lowest ranking person in the room, GS or regular Army, blowing your nose like a circus clown feels a lil' impolitic.)