The Family That Laughs Together, Stays Together

Upon arriving back at home empty-handed, the father discovered that the toddler had been laughing in his own room, giggling in his parents’ bed, chortling in the hallway, and guffawing everywhere else. The mother and father would try to put a bucket in front of him, but the toddler began to associate that action with laughing and would push it away in hopes that it would stave off the next joke. Of course it didn’t and only made things quite a bit messier. Carpets needed to be scrubbed. The toddler’s bedsheets were soon soaking in the bathtub in an attempt to save them for future use. An attempt that would prove futile. The mother and father’s bedsheets were thrown into a washing machine that was about to have a very long night.

The family rushed to the emergency room of the nearest hospital. The title “emergency room” is one of those oxymorons like “jumbo shrimp” or “holy war.” Nothing about that place moves at the pace that emergencies should. And if you ever feel depressed because you’re sitting home on a Saturday night, take a walk over to your local emergency room. After spending five minutes in the packed waiting room of miserable, injured, and sick people, you’ll walk out feeling like a million bucks happily returning to your boring but healthy Saturday night at home. The family arrived at 9:00 and was seen at midnight. The toodler was given some medication that actually seemed to help. He stopped laughing long enough to hold down some liquids.

The little guy was exhausted from his six-hour ordeal however. The doctor looked at the parents and said, “It’s so sad isn’t it? You just wish it was you going through it rather than him, don’t you?” Stupidly the father agreed. And the irony began. When the father turned to the mother, he noticed that her face had gone deathly pale. She looked at him and said, “I don’t believe this. I’m about to start laughing.” She excused herself and went off to find a ladies room to chuckle in private. It was like the end of The Exorcist. The toddler was no longer possessed, but the evil spirits had hopped over to the nearest warm body. The hospital prescribed an anti-nausea medication (the same one the doctor had prescribed over the phone five hours before) and released the family.