I have no idea how I convinced her, but somehow, I managed to talk her into spending an afternoon stomping around in the woods. If you look at this photo, you’d think she’s having a great time—what you can’t see is that she’s in pain. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time, and fifteen minutes before this picture was taken, neither did she.
I had gone up for a visit, and between all the laughter and catching up, I somehow roped her into an afternoon of Geocaching. For those unfamiliar, Geocaching is basically a treasure hunt—except without the treasure. Sometimes the caches are easy to find in public places, but every once in a while, you end up deep in the wilderness, questioning your life choices. Naturally, we found ourselves in the latter situation. But hey—photo evidence suggests we actually found the cache, so we counted the day as a win. Besides, a South Florida thunderstorm was rolling in, and that is not something you mess with.
On the ride back, she casually mentioned that she was really itchy. Maybe a run-in with poison ivy, we figured. Bad luck, but nothing catastrophic. She didn’t bring it up again—until much later that evening.
I was in my room when she knocked on my door, strolling in half-laughing, half-confused.
“Well, that was fun,” she said.
I agreed—though I still couldn’t believe I’d gotten her to willingly wander through the woods.
“Wanna go back tomorrow?” I asked, mostly just to mess with her.
She gave me a look. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she said, tugging at her shirt and trying very hard not to scratch. Then she stepped closer and lifted the side of her shirt just above her waist. “Do you think this is contagious?”
Now, normal people would react with concern. I, however, jumped back like she had just unleashed the plague.
“I don’t know ! But WHY would you get that close and ask me that?!” I shouted, putting my hands up and turning away. She burst out laughing.
By the next morning, it had turned into full-blown shingles. The doctor told her it happened because of a “weakened immune system”—a statement that we could only roll our eyes at. Yes, obviously her immune system was compromised.
The good news for me? It was not, in fact, contagious.
The good news for her? I never asked her to go Geocaching again.
