Measles Are Nasty

13. Ivy and I were home from school  --  for what seemed an eternity.  We had measles.  Not the mild German Measles  (which has its own serious problems) but MEASLES.  Or what  Mommie called red measles.   The Bad Measles according to Mommie.

We were confined to our bed in the back room. The one window was darkened. when Mommie pulled down the green shade.   Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day we were confined.  Only after dark were we free to leave that darkened prison.  

Confined to a darkened room with nothing to do but talk to each other.  Day after day!  I’m not sure Ivy and I liked each other enough for this  ‘too close-too long’  contact
. 

“Too much light will cause blindness and brain damage,” Mommie said when we pleaded an end to our prison.

The school primer reader Grandma Cardwell had given me was easy to get.  I got off my bed, found my reader, sat by the window, lifted the green shade and opened my book. As if summoned by the lifted shade or the opened book Mommie burst into the room.

She snatched (no exaggeration) the book from my hand. “Git back in that bed.”

“But Mommie.”

“Git in the bed and git now.”

I got back in bed—not sure what I hated more—Measles or Mommie.