CHAPTER 3

Mary's Pearl Earrings

Four-year old Jamie sat petulantly on the edge of his parent's bed. "Mommy, why can't I go to the party with the rest of you? Danny and Erin and Joey are going," he pouted.

Mary checked her lipstick and put the tube back on her dresser. "Jamie, because we won't get home until too long after your bedtime. And you'd be bored. You'll have lots more fun here with Carol." The Regan family, minus Jamie, was getting ready to leave for the annual NYPD Christmas banquet. Jamie would be staying at home with a babysitter for the first time without his siblings. "You like Carol, remember? You and Joe had fun playing with her last month."

"Yeah," Jamie sighed.

Mary poked through her jewelry box and pulled out a pair of pearl stud earrings. She held them up to her ears. No, that wasn't the right look for tonight's festive event. "After you two get dinner, you can play Candyland, or watch a movie. We'll be back home before you have time to miss us at all." She put down the pearl earrings and looked through the jewelry box for that pair of rhinestone drop earrings Frank had given her for their last anniversary. That was the right look for this occasion. Busy setting the earring in place, she didn't notice that Jamie had hopped off the bed and walked over to the dresser.

Jamie stared at the earrings his mother had set down. The small white globes attached to the gold sticks looked just like little balls of sugar, and kind of like the chocolate candies he been allowed to eat a few of at Halloween, although the candies had been brighter colors. He wondered what these tasted like. He picked them up and carefully put them on his tongue. Bleh. Other than the tangy metal flavor, they didn't really taste like anything. But then, the chocolate candies hadn't had a lot of chocolate flavor at first, until the outside layer melted away. Maybe these 'candies' needed a little time…

"Okay, Jamie, let's go downstairs and meet your sitter," Mary spoke up.

Uh-oh. If Mommy looked closely, she was going to catch him tasting her earrings, after she'd told him not to put small metal objects in his mouth. Jamie pushed them to the back of his mouth and swallowed, like he'd done with Erin's locket. But this time, something went wrong. They got stuck, and started poking his throat. It hurt! He coughed once, but the earrings slid down further down and poked even harder. He coughed again, and they slid even further down, poking his throat all the way. "Mommy!" he croaked.

"What's wrong, Jamie?" Mary looked down at her son. Jamie was coughing and grabbing at his throat; tears streaming down his red face. She looked to the dresser and noticed her earrings were missing. She knew exactly where they were. "Jamie, sweetie, did you swallow my earrings?"

Jamie nodded miserably. "Poking … inside," he whined between coughs. "Mommy!" The coughs were rapidly turning to choking sobs as Jamie began to panic.

"Shh, baby. Don't worry." Mary scooped her son up and ran to find her husband. "Frank!"

"Waiting for you, Honey," Frank called up the stairs. "What's wrong?" he asked as he noticed Mary running down the stairs, carrying Jamie in her arms, and the worried look on her face.

"Call the doctor! Jamie swallowed my pearl earrings."

Frank took one look at Jamie's red, tear-streaked face and grabbed his son out of his wife's arms. "Never mind calling. Let's get to the hospital now."

Fortunately, Henry and Betty had driven out to Bay Ridge to pick up the family for the party. "Francis, I'll call your pediatrician for you. And don't worry about the other kids. Betty and I will take care of them," Henry told his son.

Within minutes, Frank had Jamie strapped in his car seat and Mary settled in the back seat behind him, and was driving to the hospital as quickly as conditions allowed. Immediately upon arrival at the hospital, they were whisked back to a treatment room. That was when Jamie realized exactly where they were – a doctor's office! Mommy had said they were going to the 'mergency room, but he knew what a doctor's office looked like! He started trying to wiggle out of his mother's grip.

"Mommy, they're not poking anymore," he lied to his mother. Something still felt stuck in his throat, but it wasn't as bad as it had been earlier. "We can go home now."

Mary held her baby tighter. "You still need to see the doctor, Jamie. The earrings could hurt you."

Jamie turned to his father. "Daddy, I feel all better," he fibbed again. "I don't need to see the doctor." Doctor always wanted to poke his arms with sharp objects that made them hurt for days. "Please, Daddy!"

Frank reached from his position sitting in the hard chair next to the examination bed to grip his son's foot. "Jamie, when you swallow things you shouldn't, sometimes you have to visit the doctor."

"I'll never swallow anything ever again for my whole life if we can go home," Jamie begged. "I promise!"

"Sweetie, you have to swallow food, or you'll get hungry," Mary explained. "But food and drinks are the only things you should swallow, okay? And you have to see the doctor tonight."

Jamie sniffled. "Wanna go home."

"Knock-knock!" The on-call pediatrician knocked on the doorframe and let herself into the room. "So, I understand our young patient is wearing earrings on the wrong side of him?"

"My pearl studs. I'd just put them down on my dresser briefly," Mary explained as the doctor did a quick examination of Jamie.

"And you thought they looked like candy, Jamie?" she asked while palpating his neck.

"Yes'm," Jamie mumbled miserably.

"Makes sense. Okay, now tip you head back and open wide for me." The doctor aimed a small light into Jamie's open mouth. "How long ago did he swallow the earrings?"

Frank glanced at his watch. "A half hour. Maybe a little more."

"Good." The doctor stepped back slightly. "Mr. Reagan, Mrs. Reagan, I'd like to get one quick x-ray. I can see the edge of one of the earrings, lodged right about here," the doctor gestured to a spot just below her neck, "and the other one is likely in his stomach. If it is, we'll remove them both with a scope. Normally, we'd let them pass naturally…"

Frank shared a rueful glance with his wife. Jamie had given then more than sufficient experience in that area.

"… but since the stems are sharp – they caused some minor abrasions to his throat – I don't want to risk any further injury. We'll do the procedure under light anesthesia, and then we'll keep him overnight for observation."

Jamie only understood one part of the doctor's speech. They were going to keep him! Take him away from Mommy! "Mommy! Don't let them keep me. I wanna stay with you!" Jamie grabbed his mother tighter.

"Shhh. Shhh, Jamie. It's okay. We'll be right here with you." Mary reassured her son before she looked up at the doctor. "They'll give you some medicine to make you sleepy, and when you wake up, we'll be sitting by your side, waiting to take you home."

"That's right, Jamie. We'll get you fixed up, and send you back home with your family. If all goes right, we'll even send your Mommy's earrings home with you." The doctor smiled at Mary.

"Oh. Okay," Jamie agreed.

"Isn't that… nice." Mary shook her head. She was never going to wear those things again, not after they'd been swimming around in her baby's stomach. She was with Erin on this one. Danny may have been able to clean up his dimes to his satisfaction. But pierced earrings. No way. Nope.

==BB==BB==

"Mom never did wear those pearl earrings again," Jamie laughed "Ow!" he yelped as his ribs again protested any movement.

Frank looked down at his son. He hoped Jamie would forgive him, but there was one final story to tell. "When he swallowed the key to the liquor cabinet…" Frank couldn't keep back a chuckle. "That was pretty serious."

Observant readers may have noticed we're going out of order with how the conversation went in the episode, but it worked better for this story. :D