You wouldn't like me when I cough

chase  ·  Fri, Aug 21, 2015

Milo rarely goes straight from sleeping to crying. It usually takes several minutes of writhing and blinking, and you know she’s just about to get loud when she starts coughing. I find this so strange, because the coughs themselves seem to upset her the most, and yet of course she wouldn’t be coughing if she weren’t upset already. It’s as if she doesn’t normally have the wherewithal to fuss, but she has the conviction, and she wills herself to cough just to give herself the adrenaline she needs to cry.

“Don’t cough!” I say. “Why would you do that??!!” I say. “You know how it upsets you.”

“You’re so masochistic,” I add.

And then she coughs again. At me, I’m pretty sure.