Sick Day

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I wake up this morning with a splitting headache. Yesterday, I felt horrible, so I came straight home from school and went right to bed. Slept all through the night, and I still feel awful this morning.

I get up and stumble to the bathroom, coughing along the way. I can hardly walk straight. As I lean over the sick to wash my face, I realize that I'm burning up. I slpash cold water on my face and stand there, leaning over the sink, trying to keep the room from spinning.

I can't go to work today.

But I have to! I get paid by the day, so if I don't show up, I get nothing! And with the two-week Chrismas break coming up, plus the fact that I'm flying home for a week, I need to save up every penny just to make to my next paycheck. And the kids have to take their end of term tests this week. I have a lot of marking to do. I gotta go to work.

I wash my face and take deep breaths, but I start coughing and coughing. I'll just eat cough drops like crazy and give the kids some seat work to do and put my head down on my desk and....

Yeah right, they'll be wild like they always are. They won't do the seat work unless you're standing over them, hounding them, and even then they're going to give you hell. You won't have a restful day unless you stay home.

Stay home. I stumble back to my room, where I promptly call the school and leave a hoarse-voiced message on the absentee line.

Then I crawl beneath the warm blanket on my bed and totally pass out...

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