Falling Over Sideways

Claire recalls a memory and tells it to her father to calm him down. When she was younger, they used to play a game called “Fufu, the Christmas Horse,” where they would play with her toy ponies and, sometimes, she would ride on her father’s back while pretending to be a pony. When she’d fall, he’d say, “I catching you!” (48). The recall helps, but when the ambulance arrives, her father becomes agitated again. Two paramedics, Kathy and Bil, assess her father for stroke complications.

As they head to the hospital, Claire attempts to call her mother while overhearing Bil on the phone with the hospital say something about readying the stroke team, and that her father possibly “threw a clot” (53). Neither her mother nor Matthew pick up, so Claire group texts them that they’re heading to Lehigh Valley Medical Center and that her father is possibly having a stroke. When she asks Kathy if her father will be alright, Kathy explains that “time is brain” (54), which means that the responders only have three hours from the beginning of the stroke to get things figured out before it’s too late. Her father has a fighting chance because they’re making good time.