Elite Sees a Fit Elite Sees a FitIT WAS A NORMAL DAY AT SCHOOL AND ELLIE WAS IN the middle of geography when one of the boys had a fit.
Mrs. Richmond, the teacher, was explaining the culture of Brazil when Harvey McPeak in the third row went into a fit. One minute Mrs. Richmond was talking coffee beans and the next minute she had grabbed a ruler and run for Harvey’s desk.
“John, get Mr. Woodrum!” she yelled. They all knew it was serious if the principal was being called.
Ellie couldn’t see well because she sat in the back row, but it was plain that Mrs. Richmond was sticking the ruler in Harvey’s mouth. Ellie felt sick to her stomach. She knew she was going to throw up, but if she threw up it would only make things worse for poor Mrs. Richmond—so she didn’t.
By the time Mr. Woodrum ran into the room with John, Harvey was lying in a dead faint, Mrs. Richmond was crying, three of the girls were crying, everyone was scared and Ellie knew she’d have to throw up. So she ran for the bathroom while Mr. Woodrum put things in order.
When she got back, shaky and pale green, Harvey and Mr. Woodrum were gone, Mrs. Richmond was drinking a glass of water and wiping her eyes with a tissue and the room sounded like a beehive.
Ellie eased herself into her desk. She looked across at Randy Meadows.
“Harvey dead?” she asked.
“Naw,” said Randy. “He came to and walked out with Mr. Woodrum. But he could have been dead. Could have swallowed his tongue, if Mrs. Richmond didn’t have that ruler.”
Ellie’s stomach went sour again.
“Could’ve what?”
“Swallowed his tongue,” Randy answered. “I know because my cousin Ed takes fits and everybody says you have to make sure he doesn’t swallow his tongue.”
“But how …” Ellie began.
“Beats me. But I heard a girl over at Daniels Elementary died last year and that was why.”
Ellie didn’t say anything. She wished Carolyn was with her, but Carolyn was in music.
Mrs. Richmond finally got the class settled and back on the subject of coffee beans. Ellie wasn’t listening, though. She didn’t listen to anything the rest of geography. She was wondering what brought on fits.
Carolyn was loaded with questions at lunch.
“Well, what was it like, Ellie? I mean, did you see him? Was it awful? Were you scared?”
Ellie said she didn’t see him, it wasn’t awful, she wasn’t scared. She didn’t want to talk about it so she asked Carolyn about Jim in music and that took care of that.
But she took the story of Harvey McPeak home to Okey.
“Well,” he said. “I’ve heard of them but never seen one. We never had no fits on our side of the family. I can’t speak for your mother’s.”
Ellie was partly relieved. She asked her mother.
“Fits in the family?” her mother repeated. “Well, seems to me your Aunt Bessie had a few in her lifetime. In fact, I believe it kept your Great-uncle Charles on edge to his dying day. But Bessie lived to be almost ninety, so I reckon they knew when one was coming.”
“But how would they know, Mama?”
“Shoot, I don’t know nothing about them things. Never had to worry with it myself.”
Ellie, though, was worried. She wanted to tell somebody what was troubling her, but who, but who? Somebody who would know the answer and wouldn’t laugh at her.
She spent most of the night thinking about it. As she lay in bed, her tongue felt too big in her mouth and her stomach still wasn’t right.
The next morning Harvey wasn’t at school. Ellie wondered if he’d finally died, but Mrs. Richmond said he was resting and would be back in a day or two. That was all she said.
So Ellie didn’t get her answer.
Where could she find out? She was too afraid of Mr. Woodrum to talk to him. Who would know?
Finally, in the afternoon, in the middle of the Civil War, she got an idea.
When she got home from school, she pulled the telephone cord as tight as she could and hid herself in the bathroom to make a call. She got the number from the yellow pages.
She listened to the phone ringing.
“Emergency Room,” answered a woman’s voice.
“Uh …” Ellie couldn’t start. “Uh …”
“Hello?”
“Are you a nurse?” Ellie asked.
“Yes, can I help you?”
“Well, I was wondering … if you … if you could tell me … uh … what causes fits.”
“Fits?” echoed the nurse. “Do you mean epilepsy? Is someone having a seizure in your home?”
“Yes, ma’am. I mean, no, ma’am. No, ma’am, no one’s having one in my home, and yes, ma’am, that’s what I mean.”
Ellie whispered, “I’d appreciate it if you could tell me what causes it.”
“Have you had a seizure?” asked the nurse.
“Oh, no! It was a boy at school. I was just wondering …”
The nurse was quiet a moment. “Are you afraid you’ll have one, too, honey?”
Ellie blushed.
“Yes, ma’am. Sort of.”
“Well, dear, I can’t tell you for sure you won’t ever have one in your lifetime, but most of us never do. It’s an illness that has to do with the brain. Do you feel well?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Do you faint often?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Well, dear, I think you are probably in perfect health and have nothing to worry about. Most likely that boy has had his illness since he was small. And because of what happened, he’ll be given some medicine to control his seizures.”
“Yes, ma’am,” answered Ellie. “Uh, I thank you for talking to me. Very much.”
“‘Bye.” Ellie softly replaced the receiver. She felt around the inside of her mouth with her tongue. It felt normal. She didn’t believe anyone could swallow his tongue anyway, since it was all hooked up in there.
She stood up and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She looked all right. She didn’t figure rotten teeth qualified her as unhealthy.
She decided she wasn’t going to have any fits. And she was glad about it.
When Harvey came back to school, he seemed shy and embarrassed, and Ellie felt sorry for him. None of the kids really talked to him, and nobody mentioned his fit. Mostly they all seemed embarrassed, too.
If she hadn’t been so sure she wasn’t going to have any fits, Ellie would have kept away from Harvey like the rest of them. And if she hadn’t known he’d been given some medicine to stop any more fits from coming, she would have kept her eyes on him like a hawk.
But she knew he was all right. And she was, too.
So she surprised him—and herself—and especially Carolyn—when she invited him to sit with the two of them at lunch. Carolyn wasn’t talking, and Harvey was still shy, so Ellie talked the whole time about Bullet.