Reading at a Feverish Pace

     Kara is a little sick today, a little cough, a little fever keeping her quiet on the couch.  What do we do on a sick day?  We set aside formal school activities and we read and read some more.  We read Snow White.  We play Sorry and Kara begins filling her new sketch pad.  We read Peter Pan.  Barrie makes me laugh aloud as I voice the tale, though it does require censorship, his unique style and stunning vocabulary are well worth knowing.  Bryan and I walk to the college library over his lunch break, discussing on the way home the sheer number of books we wish we could read.  What if you started at one end of the library and read to the other, with permission to skip a few of the boring or offensive volumes?  We come home with hefty books, art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  We bring Ally a couple volumes on Queen Elizabeth.  We bring Sam fodder for his WWII curiosity.  And for the sick child on the couch a book on the solar system and Houdini.  We read again in the afternoon, Little Pilgrims Progress and the next adventure of Peter Pan.  We read to ourselves during quiet time.  We'll read again tonight, warm in the lamplight under the cold dark sky.  And we'll hope when Kara's lamp is turned off she'll sleep quiet and undisturbed through the night and wake up new tomorrow.