Spring 2019

“How are you feeling now, Toby?” Brody Ingram asked his younger brother, Toby, in the hotel room in Door County. They were both hanging out in the hotel playing video games, since Toby was sick with pneumonia.
“My chest hurts when I breathe in,” Toby replied.
“Oh yes. Pneumonia sucks. Been there, done that.”
“I’m just glad that I have someone to play video games with.”
“Honestly wasn’t feeling up to going out anyway, so it all worked out,” Brody said.
“What were we all planning to do today? I’m completely out of the loop since I’ve been so sick,” Toby asked.
“I remember we all wanted to go to a fish boil. Not sure who all will be going to that now. I think otherwise they were gonna go on a boat ride.”
“F*ck me, I wanted to do that.”
“Honestly I’d rather not be on a boat.”
“Yeah, I could fall asleep at any moment.”

Summer 2023

“So my girlfriend Alyssa, Sav, his girlfriend, and I are going to Door County in a couple weeks,” Toby Ingram said to his older brother, Brody Ingram, over the phone.
“You looking forward to it?” Brody asked.
“Yes and no, honestly. I think it will be fun because it’s a double date on vacation, and this is something that we have been planning for a while. But I am really hoping that I don’t get sick again when we are there.”
“Oh gosh, yes. You were down and out when all five of us boys were in Door County a few years ago.”
“Yup, I remember. I ended up with pneumonia. It sucked because when we left, I was not feeling too well, but I wrote it off as a small cold. Then the next day, it went into my chest, and I knew something was up,” Toby said.
“It was still a fun enough trip since we were able to play video games together, and we had that pizza in the hotel room,” Brody replied.
“Yeah, but I wish I could’ve done more things with you. I missed out on a lot of what you all did. Dawson took me to see the doctor when you all were exploring the area. And it was brutal too, since I had a chest x-ray and all those other brutal lung tests. And by the time we got back to the hotel, all I wanted to do was f*cking sleep. I know that Dawson caught up with you, David, and Brett. It just wasn’t one of my favorite trips with you all. That’s all I gotta say.”
“It’s so funny how at least one of us almost always gets sick when we have a road trip with all five of us boys. Brett got sick when we went to Minneapolis. David got sick when we went to Nashville. I got sick when we went to St. Louis. I don’t remember a time when Dawson got sick.”
“Dawson’s got the immune system of a wildebeest, though.”
“Of course he does. Oh, what is Sav’s girlfriend’s name?”
“Krissy.”

June 2016

“Toby, you alright?” Brody Ingram asked his younger brother, whom he saw lying on the couch in the common area.
“My head’s pounding,” Toby replied.
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, well, I did it to myself.”
“What happened?” Brody asked.
“Idiot me decided to go on a run after taking a week off from it with this damn head cold going on,” Toby replied.
“How do you feel, aside from the pounding headache?”
“I feel okay otherwise, a little tired. It felt really nice getting my pulse up again, but I think I started back at it a little too early.”
“Maybe a little, but at least you got a workout in. Do you think it went well today?”
“No.”

March 2018

“So Toby had to have his appendix taken out a couple days ago,” David Ingram said to his friend, Levi Cranston, over the phone.
“How’s he doing with that?” Levi asked.
“Seems to be in good spirits. He told me that he started feeling some weird pain around his belly button early that morning, and he also felt very nauseous. He attempted to go to one of his classes, and his professor actually told him to leave since he looked pretty sick. When the pain moved toward where his appendix was, he decided to go to the ER.”
“That also happened to me. Except I didn’t go to class at all that day.”
“Get this, though. Toby is currently at home recovering from the surgery. He actually has to get another surgery in a few weeks to fix an undetected hernia an inch or so above his belly button. He also told me that this morning, he tried to locate the hernia, and he felt a small bump where they found it. He had no idea he had a hernia until he got his appendix removed,” David said.
“His appendix didn’t burst, did it?” Levi asked.
“No, it didn’t.”
“Good. When I had my appendix removed, they told me that, if I had waited another five minutes to get to the ER, my appendix probably would have burst.”
“You remember that Brody also had his appendix taken out a while ago, right?”
“Oh yeah, that’s right.”
“Brody’s situation was pretty similar to yours. If we had waited even a few more minutes to get to the hospital, his appendix would have burst.”​​

Spring 2022

“I’ve got my first date with this girl, Alyssa, tonight,” Toby Ingram said to his brother, David Ingram, over the phone.
“Are you excited?” David asked.
“I really like this girl, but I just want it to go well. We’ve been seriously talking for a few weeks, and we agreed to get coffee after work.”
“The first date is always the hardest, in my opinion. Especially if you don’t know them before the date.”
“That’s the only thing I’ve been able to think about today. I haven’t been able to eat much. My heart’s been racing pretty much the whole day. And I’m feeling these weird cramps in my stomach. I just want to get this over with and see if there is some connection,” Toby said.
“That was me when I first met Mia. It was so weird though, because we would see each other in random places. After the fourth time of unintentionally running into her, I asked her if she wanted to grab coffee some time. And, of course, we’ve been together for some time now. Before that, I had been single for a few years after all the crap that happened with Olivia, so I felt like that was a huge leap of faith,” David said.
“Yeah, same. I’ve been single since Covid started, and I’m just ready to get myself out there now. The thing that is nice, though, is that Alyssa is shy. Like painfully shy. That’s one of the things that attracted me to her, I guess.”
“Mia is very introverted, which got me into her. And it’s awesome that she and Julia, Brody’s girlfriend, are like best friends now.”
“If it actually works out with Alyssa, maybe they’ll have a new friend.”
“May I ask how old she is? Mia is going to be 28 in a month,” David asked.
“When is her birthday?” Toby responded with another question.
“May 19.”
“Oh wow, I’ll be 26 on the 15th. Alyssa is going to be 24 this year.”

March 2018

“So I had my hernia ultrasound today,” Toby Ingram said over the phone to his brother, David Ingram.
“How did it go?” David asked.
“Kinda embarrassing, honestly. When I had the ultrasound done, my stomach decided to be super loud.”
“Oh jeez. Do you know if you’ll for sure need to have surgery?”
“I am 99% positive I will need surgery for this hernia. Just don’t know when yet, since I’ve got a lot to catch up on with school and all,” Toby responded.
“Hopefully soon. How do you feel otherwise?” David asked.
“I feel okay, really exhausted. But that’s all part of recovery. I went back to school last week.”
“That’s good. I remember Brody having a similar experience when he had his appendix out.”
“For sure. I can eat most food, but I’m still having a hard time with spicy food. I started feeling more like myself a few days ago. The first few days were brutal, since I felt like I had a really bad stomach bug. On top of that, I couldn’t shower for 48 hours after my appendectomy, so I felt super gross after a while. So all this for my damn appendix. I felt better when I had my tonsils out at 15.”
“Knock on wood that I don’t ever get my appendix out.”