Chapter 171: Day 170

Day 170,

The youngest child in the class came in today with a cough and runny nose.  It quickly occurred to me that this was the first time I’d ever seen anyone sick since I washed up here.  Hungover once or twice, yes, but not ill.

Concerned, I set the class to a set of arithmetic problems and left Cass to supervise while I pulled the sniffling child aside to inquire about his health.  It took a little bit of prodding but he soon admitted that he didn’t feel good, but insisted that it was nothing to worry about.  He said his father told him everyone gets sick like this around his age and after a few days of sniffles he’ll be good as new and wouldn’t ever catch it again.  According to his father, everyone else in the class probably had it already so he wouldn’t get anyone else sick.

Wary of that explanation I left the child for a moment to have a quick whispered conversation with Cass about it.  She confirmed that what the boy said his father told him was true.  Children’s Fever she called it.  Said she got it herself when she was younger than him and, if anything, he’s probably on the old end of when it’s normal to catch it.  I asked her if she’d ever heard of anyone catching it twice.  She said she hadn’t and said that she’d also always been told the same thing about being immune after getting it once.

Well enough, but I still wasn’t going to risk spreading disease around more than necessary, even something mild like this.  Yet, there was the matter of not wanting to single the kid out and make him a pariah.

I wound up giving the class an impromptu speech about how, being an outsider, there are sometimes normal everyday things that everyone takes for granted that are new and mysterious to me despite being an adult.  Like the crystals.  So that means when I run into something like that they all have a chance to teach me, and today I’d just heard about Children’s Fever for the first time and was curious to learn more.

I asked for a show of hands of those who had had Children’s Fever before, thinking it’d be a way to ensure that if there was anyone else who hadn’t had it before I could keep them away from the boy.  But, sure enough, everyone else had caught it before and started excitedly telling me about the symptoms they had.  Never underestimate the ability of a child to describe the discharge of a runny nose in gross detail.

So, not exactly as planned, but at least it might have made the boy feel a little bit more at ease and part of the group.  I wound up keeping him in his original seat, figuring I’d attempt to limit the exposure to those who had already been in proximity.

That said, I have little doubt I was thoroughly exposed to it.  At least if I come down with anything it shouldn’t be any worse than what we called “the common cold” back in my old world.  And I’m pretty sure the old me has pushed and worked through worse.

Children’s Fever.  What a curious disease, especially in a place such as this.  How does it survive and propagate if it only lasts for a few days and there are only a couple of children born each year?  Why the relatively standard and narrow age range for catching it?  Perhaps a very long asymptomatic period?  Maybe those immune to it can still carry and spread?  Although in that latter case, you’d think I would have caught it by now.  Maybe as an outsider I’m immune somehow?  Or as an adult?

That would be convenient.

 

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