Then Ryan screamed my name.
“Maeve!”
I ran toward him.
Chloe’s entire face and neck were covered in raised red hives.
Her lips had swollen.
Her eyes were almost closed.
Worst of all, she was wheezing.
That horrible, high-pitched sound every time she tried to inhale.
I knew that sound.
I had heard it once before when she was two.
“Where’s her EpiPen?” I shouted. “Ryan, where is the bag?”
“I forgot it.”
I didn’t stop to ask why.
I ran to the kitchen, grabbed the spare injector I kept above the refrigerator, and used it exactly the way her doctor had taught us.
Then I called 911.
Ryan paced the room repeating,
“Oh God. Oh God.”
The paramedics arrived six minutes later.
They gave Chloe oxygen, medication, and another injection.
Gradually, her breathing improved.
The redness began fading.
Once she was stable, one of the paramedics asked Ryan what she had eaten.
And Ryan said,
“Just a plain apple. We were at the park the whole time.”
He never looked at me.
He stared at the floor.
Now one of the paramedics, Sandra, crouched beside Chloe.
“You’re doing really well, sweetheart. Can you tell me what you ate at Miss Dana’s?”
Chloe thought for a moment.
“Ice cream.”
She swallowed.
“Vanilla. There were crunchy white pieces in it.”
She looked at me.
“I think they were nuts.”
My stomach dropped.
“Macadamia nuts,” I said.
They were Chloe’s most serious allergy.
Ryan rubbed both hands over his face.
“I didn’t know what was in the topping, Maeve. I swear. The jar just said crunch topping.”
“You didn’t know?”
“It was an accident.”
And yes.
The allergic reaction itself could have been an accident.
Families dealing with severe food allergies know that accidents can happen even when everyone is careful.
