Famous Last Words

3:00 a.m.
I can't sleep. Mosquito bites have woken me up. I was aggressively scratching in my sleep. The itching is unbearable. I tell myself that if I just stop scratching, the itching will die down and I'll be able to fall back asleep. I lie very still and try to breathe deeply.

3:30 a.m.
Forget that! I go downstairs and find the calamine lotion. My legs are now covered in pink splotches. I sit down to wait for the lotion to dry before heading back to bed.

3:40 a.m.
Itching is still awful. I take two allergy tablets and climb the stairs.

4:00 a.m.
I drift off.

6:00 a.m.
The toddler jumps on me. The itching is almost gone but I know it's lurking. I think back to what I said to my sister-in-law the previous evening as we all sat outside enjoying a relatively mild evening. "Mosquitoes used to love me but they don't bother me anymore."

Yeah, right.