Unforseen.
As the great writer @ntonia F0r3st puts it 'The best disasters are totally unexpected'. On Friday I waved my son off to the train after two weeks of well-balanced, nourishing meals and well-balanced, nourishing conversations about his future. On Saturday morning I was on an open phone line to my daughters trying to ascertain whether he had serious head injuries and was about to die.

On Saturday night - when we were finally assuming that he was all right - I wrote a detailed account of it here. I am obviously not a born writer because when I read through it I felt that it was intrusive and 'wrong' and I deleted it.

He had gone to an all-night party after an evening of drinking elsewhere and feeling a little slurrey had corrected that with something that could be mistaken for b@king powder. Then, refreshed, he had taken part in a 'dr1nking g@me'... and WON (I am so proud). Soon afterwards he fell over, hitting his head with all his weight on a stone floor, and passed out. On Saturday my middle daughter noticed that he had not come home and rang his mobile to check his movements. No reply. After three more calls a scared-sounding strange girl rang back saying that he had been lying unconcious for FIVE hours but they didn't know who he was or 'what to do'.

I won't go into the endlessness that followed but I will say that it is very hard to tell the difference between the symptoms of he@d injury and @lcohol p0isoning. Either of which could have been fatal. My daughters and I were particularly mad and freaking because we happen to know TWO boys who died after hitting their heads while drunk. One in almost identical circumstances after a minor fall. 'Luckily' he had fallen onto the front side of his face so although looking hideous it had not done any permanent damage.

The maddening thing is that you would have picked him for one of the most sensible of his friends and in fact he is. Only the day before one of our stuffier neighbours told me what a charming boy he is and how they are really pleased that he gets on so well with their (virginal, over-protected) daughter. Unfortunately he can remember absolutely nothing from the time that he won the 'game' up until Saturday evening. So has no real idea of what we all went through and the potential seriousness of it. You can see him thinking secretly 'Pack of fool women'...

I still feel as if I had been through some kind of vicious physical fight. My muscles are all aching and I'm exhausted and I keep finding myself thinking odd thoughts as if he HAD actually died. I suppose mothers have that worry at the bottom of their mind every time their child goes out of their sight and it never goes away.

- posted by Iris @ 5/17/2004 10:07:00 AM comment