A Little Excerpt

January 2020

Rhody Leyman just came home to his apartment in Brooklyn, New York after having minor surgery to put tubes in his ears after a few ear infections over the past eight months. He could have worked today, but he thought it would be best to rest up for the day. His friends, Graham Maggliardi and Allen Harris, stopped by to check on him. Rhody spent the day on the couch wrapped in his fleece throw blanket with his orange tabby cat, Topaz. He had a cotton ball stuffed in each ear.

“Hey Rhody, how you feeling?” Graham asked.
“Not as bad as I thought I would. I was pretty nervous about this one since I knew I’d be awake during it,” Rhody replied. “My ears are pretty sore, and I’m exhausted, but otherwise I’m doing alright.”
“That’s good. How many times have you had tubes put in?”
“This will be my fourth time. I’ve always had issues with my ears and fluid buildup. And we all thought that was resolved when I had my tonsils removed.”
“When did you get your tonsils removed?” Allen asked.
“I was like sixteen, I think. And this is the first time since then. They checked my throat and my nose, and my tonsils and adenoids haven’t grown back. And everything else came back clear,” Rhody replied.
“No other problems?”
“No. And the ear infections I’ve had recently weren’t awful, like I could still work and live a normal life. My ears were just sore.”
“In case you were wondering, we got you a smoothie while we were out. Wanna hang out here, and we could get pizza for dinner?”
“I’m totally cool with that.”