Soccer game seizures

It's midnight. I'm suddenly woken up by my cell phone ringing in my ear and a familiar volunteer is on the other end of the receiver. The boys all went to the soccer game tonight together and Jared Keller is shouting, "Jen! Austin just had a seizure, is he allergic to any medicine?!" Um...what?? "Make sure his wallet and cell phone don't get jacked with all the ruckus!" I tell him as an immediate reaction. Austin is my closest friend in Kenya. He's from Texas, my brother's age, and completely insane...so of course I love him. For godsake the kid drank goat's blood during a sacrificial ceremony in the Masaailand last March. But now it's midnight, pouring down rain, and I'm supposed to know what type of medicine he's allergic to. I stumble into his room, start emptying his bags -things flying everywhere- not really sure what I'm looking for, and wondering how I somehow came to be his "In Case of Emergency" contact. I have this self-induced sense of obligation to take care of Austin, and somehow I think this consequentially leads me to take more responsibility for myself. As I'm throwing on whatever clothes I've left on the floor, I think of how I watched my friend Megan have a seizure in the middle of a Blink 182 concert in 10th grade. Well, at least I'm prepared.

Next thing I know I'm pulling up to the Emergency entrance of Karen Hospital in a cab, and as I get to Austin's room he's lying in a bed, still wearing his highlighter-yellow Chelsea soccer jersey from the game he was at, and looking like hell. "What happened?!" I almost yell at him. "I have no idea," he says in a daze, still in shock. "Are you sure you didn't just blackout from drinking??" He barely had four over the course of three hours--totally acceptable. "Are you on any drugs??" He wasn't. The doctor suddenly comes in and starts showing me all of his negative test results an I'm strangely trying to process whether or not my appearance screams mother and if that's why I'm being trusted with all this information. There were three other volunteers there, but whatever. I'm trying to focus on the piece of paper she's showing me, and remembering how my mom would always say, "Jenny! Why didn't you pay attention!" everytime I couldn't recall what my own doctors would say to me about my own test results or diagnosis. I try to concentrate, I really do, but only recall that he was negative for meningitis and malaria, and that the doctor said that was the most important thing.

It was a long night but we made it home safely...and Austin is back to normal, sort of. Seizures, foaming at the mouth, hey--at least now I know how to get to the hospital...