A Missed Homework Assignment

The aching scratch and accompanying phlegm nested in my throat like distant relatives at a family reunion whose faces you know and names you can’t remember.

The concentrated headaches, the dehydrated eyes, the sneezes like tree-throwing tornados, I mislabeled as allergies from the two dogs and three cats newly introduced at my parents’ house.

I’ve never had allergies, but doesn’t everyone have sniffles in December?

Of course, it was not a cold or allergies or even, God willing, the flu. It was th...