Gamma came to the breakfast table and complained of a stomach ache. “Of course you have a stomach ache, you’re not wearing slippers,” we said. “Go put on slippers.” We have cold tile floors in parts of the house. She ignored that and curled up on the bench at the table. Alpha gave her a pillow and covered her with an afghan. We continued with our breakfast.
After a couple minutes Gamma leapt up, moving faster than she usually does unless the phone is ringing, and ran into the bathroom, and vomited.
She made it to the toilet, yay! There was holding of hair, cleanup help, much comforting. The realization that no, she’s not faking. But mostly Yay, she made it. You feel like giving them a gold coin when that happens.
being that our house had five people, you usually had to declare one of the two bathrooms as the “puke bathroom” anytime someone got sick. Because, there is nothing like than having both bathrooms occupied at the worst possible moment.
That, and my mother always put a plastic trash can (one of those smaller ones you put in bathrooms) beside me, and reminded me kindly, but firmly to take it with me anywhere I went. Because a plastic trashcan can be rinsed out with a hose. Unlike the carpet.