grimace.
Steve now noted a significant change in Betty. She failed to respond to his questions and she looked confused and disoriented and she seemed to be in pain. “Does anything hurt?” he asked.
“My head, head…hurts… I, I, I…”
Now Steve realized something was happening to Betty. Her speech was garbled. She seemed to be unable to bring a thought together into a coherent statement.
Betty stopped talking and stared right through Steve who recognizing the sudden change, spoke to her, but got no response, so he took her by the hand and said, “Let’s go, I’m taking you home.” She meekly accompanied him to the parking lot, got in the car and said nothing for several minutes. Then, with a sudden change of expression she asked, “Where are we going?”
A surprised Steve said, “Home to your house, don’t you remember,” Steve asked.
“Remember what? Why, what happened?”
“If you don’t know, then I’m doing the right thing by taking you home.”
She looked confused as she stammered, “But I…I don’t know what I did. What did I do?”
“All of a sudden you couldn’t talk, and then I think you passed out. Do you remember anything?”
“I remember dancing.”
“Dancing? That’s what you remember?” asked Steve.
Betty, thinking with squinted eyes, bent her head forward and shook her head. Then she put her hands over her face. “I can’t remember…I can’t remember…”
A frightened Steve began to wonder if he should go to Lutheran General’s Emergency Department, but changed his mind. Her mother and father need to know as soon as possible, he thought. “We’ll be home in five minutes,” said Steve. “Just rest and relax.” Something‘s wrong, thought Steve.
CHAPTER 4
When they arrived at the Morton Grove residence, Steve rushed out of the car to knock on the back door, but Betty, now seemingly alert, or at least with a more rational expression on her face and looking better, saw Steve reach for the doorbell and said, “Here, I’ll open the door.”
“Are both your parents home now?” asked Steve, “we have to talk to them about what happened to you.”
Betty frowned. “I’m fine,” she said as if nothing ever happened and she opened the door with her key. The noise of the door opening and the entry of the two prompted a “who’s there?” from the family room.
“It’s me, dad,” answered Betty.
She sounds better now, thought Steve.
With that, a surprised Ezra and Alvina rushed to the kitchen. “How come you guys are here so early?” asked Ezra, “I thought the tennis match wouldn’t finish until later. We didn’t expect you until 4 or 5 o’clock.”
Both Steve and Betty spoke simultaneously. “I don’t know why,” said Betty.
“She was acting funny sir,” said Steve.
By now, Alvina was starting to frown and ring her hands. “Alright, Steve, tell me what happened,” asked Ezra.
“First, she fell asleep in the stands while watching the match. Then she said she had a headache and she started slurring her words and looked like she was out of it, confused or disoriented or something. I got a little scared, so I brought her home, sir.” Both parents stared at their daughter.
Ezra said, “Are you okay, Betty. What happened? Tell us.”
“Oh my God, I knew it—something happened,” screamed Alvina.
“Nothing happened,” said Betty emphatically while Steve thought, My God, she doesn’t remember anything.
“Ma’am, I believe she’s not remembering, because she sure was acting funny. I have no idea what happened, but suddenly she couldn’t talk. She didn’t answer my questions, she seemed dazed, she stared into space and held her head in her hands like she was having a headache. I don’t know what went on,” emphasized Steve.
Alvina put her hand on Betty’s shoulder and said, “Are you okay, Betty? Did you sleep last night?”
Betty thought for a few seconds before she said, “I think I did. I don’t remember waking up or not being able to get to sleep.”
“How’s your headache now,” asked Ezra.
Betty shook her head no and said, “It’s gone, it was no big deal, I get one every so often that doesn’t amount to much ever since I was a little kid and they don’t last long. How about I go to sleep now everybody.”
Ezra said, “Good idea, Betty, get a good nap and sleep as long as you want. No school tomorrow.” He turned to Steve and said, “You did the right thing, Steve. As long as you were a little worried, you were smart to want to get Betty back home. Better safe than sorry. We appreciate it. I think you’re gonna make a heck of a doctor.”
“Thank you, sir.” He looked toward Betty saying, “Betty, call me when you wake up, please.”
“I will, Steve.” She rushed over to hug him as her parents smiled.
Steve didn’t hear from Betty that evening, so he called her parents and found out that she was still asleep.
“That’s fine, let her sleep. Don’t wake her,” said Steve.
“We won’t. I’ll tell her you called when she wakes up.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Steve was up early the next morning, so he busied himself doing a bit of studying for one course he felt he needed brushing up on, all the time thinking of Betty and waiting for her call, which finally came at 9:00 a.m.
Betty said, “My dad said I better call you so I could thank you for being so nice and thoughtful yesterday.”
Steve was relieved by the clarity of her speech. She’s better, he thought. “Okay,” said Steve, “Go ahead.”
“Go ahead, what?” asked Betty
“Thank me.”
Pause…”But I just did,” said Betty.
Steve, smiling, responded, “If you want to know the truth, I just think you put on an act yesterday, so I would bring you home early when your parents were there and I wouldn’t be able to kiss you.”
“You could have kissed me even in front of my parents.”
“Not the kind of kiss I had in mind.”
“Oh, I see,” said Betty with eyes closed and a smile on her lips.
“Anyhow, how are you this morning?”
“Never
