Void

It is dinnertime and we have just arrived home from the grocery store. While M empties the grocery bags and I prepare the chicken, N is occupying himself by opening and closing the storage drawer beneath the oven. When we hear a thump, we both look down and he is lying prone on his back like a turtle flipped on its shell. This happens occasionally. When he just loses control of himself and falls backward. He still isn’t always good at sitting even though he’s 2. But he usually cries or laughs, depending on how hard he bumped his head. He’s regrettably used to pain. This time, he is just lying there, stiff, and his eyes are rolled up half under his lids. It is a seizure again, out of nowhere, here when we were doing normal so well. We move N to the living room couch, his head tipped to the right side as it does, a sign perhaps of where the storm brews in his brain. His limbs jerk and his throat throbs with work and foam collects on his lips. Mark sings. I kneel down beside him and kiss his cheek. Wipe his mouth. Watch for breath. This time, his lips are not turning blue. At five minutes, we medicate him. It’s what we’ve been told to do. We do what we’re told. We wait for the sedative to break the seizure’s spell. Don’t think, I tell myself. Don’t you dare feel a thing.