April 2017

“I love Toby to death, but boy oh boy, can he be a real dufus at times,” David Ingram said over the phone to one of his best friends, Levi Cranston.
“Oh geez, what happened now?” Levi asked over the phone.
“So Toby and his friend, Sav, were home from college this weekend. And Dawson and Toby were supposed to go to our grandma’s birthday dinner last night. Dawson and his wife, Daniela, came out and showed up on time. Toby, however, lost track of time, since he was out skateboarding with Sav and a couple other friends. And he showed up late of course, and then he really embarrassed himself at the restaurant.”
“He can be a bit of a space cadet, is that right?”
“Toby is by far one of the smartest people I know. All five of us boys are highly intelligent, but he has single-handedly challenged me on certain ideas that I would never have thought of, coming from my younger brother. But he has a tendency to be very absent-minded,” David replied.
“That used to be me all the time as a kid, but then I changed my ways,” Levi said.
“That’s all of us, to be honest. Our grandma requested that they all dress a little nicer since it was her birthday. I think Toby forgot to set his alarm to the time that he was supposed to get ready for the dinner. He spent too much time skateboarding with his friends that Dawson called him and asked him where he was. Then, Toby panicked and had Sav drive him to the restaurant. He showed up to the restaurant dripping in sweat and exhausted. He also had his skateboard with him, and our grandma called him out in front of everyone.”
“I’m sorry that he had to deal with that. Happened to me a lot as a kid, so I can relate.”
“Everything is fine now between Toby and our grandma. She can be a bit unreasonable at times. But in the end, she wants what’s best for us, and she wants us to be happy. But Toby did tell me that he felt so bad that he wanted to crawl into a hole at the dinner.”
“Why weren’t you at the dinner?”
“Oh for god’s sake. Brody and I are now in San Francisco, and Brett is in Brooklyn.”​

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.”​