Rehoboth

The Rehoboth Mass baseball tournament was coming up, so we were all trying to get ready. We had a great time at this tournament a year ago. But the morning we were supposed to leave, Jack felt like crap. There had been some flu and stuff going around, and as he was huddled in the car with fever and chills, we figured he had it.

But for everyone else it had been a 24 hours thing, and we had a hotel reservation. So Emily and I won Parents of the Year by packing Jack into the car and heading out on the 4 hour drive.

An hour in, Emily climbed into the back seat so Jack could put his head in her lap.

Two hours in, Jack tried eating some applesauce. And threw up. We got off the highway and pulled into a park and ride. Jack sat on the curb with his head in his hands while we cleaned up the car, and him.

After that, he was much better! He found a penny on the ground, which he happily called his lucky penny. He actually started singing in the car, I don't recall what.

We arrived, checked into our hotel, the rest of us ate, Jack seemed OK, we gave him some medicine. Suited up and headed to the game. It was clear, though, during warmups, that there was no chance. H tried to throw and chad no strength. Tried to move and looked pained. Approached us and one of the other coaches shook his head. He looks green, he said. Yeah.

After, at the hotel pool, his whole team was playing, and we were going to keep him out, but geez, he seemed OK and we just couldn't do it to him, make him sit and watch. Go get changed, I said, and he ran off, ran back, and had fun for the next couple hours. That's a large part of what Rehoboth is, and you know, he was fine.

Shared a bed that night, though, and he was awake a lot. Fever. Hot. So I kicked myself some.

But he got through the night, took more medicine the next day, and got through a game. First ball of the game hit to him in left, he didn't catch it, 2 runs ended up scoring. But then his first at-bat, down 3-0 with 2 on and 2 outs, he had a base hit that scored 2 runs and sparked us to tying it up. We won that game, won the next in dramatic fashion, ended up having a great tournament. And Jack was fine.

And slept a lot in the car on the way home.