The Babysitter

Monday night

I was attending a house party; most of the guests were coworkers, but I saw my friend Mike K. walk in and wave when he saw me. It was a pretty laid back affair. My coworker Jessica M. was there with her daughter, Maliha, who is 2. I offered to watch Maliha for awhile so Jessica could mingle with guests in the dining room, so Jess walked off as Maliha sat on my knee. At first she was facing toward the front, looking around the room. I would whisper, "What do you see?" and she would tell me. At one point something scared her -- probably too many people or too much commotion -- and she started to get upset, so I picked her up, turned her around and gave her a hug, and she was OK. She wasn't crying anymore, but as she looked up at me, I noticed that small bumps had begun to appear all over her face. They weren't red, just bumps. I became alarmed that she was having an allergic reaction to something she was eating. I thought about calling out to Jessica, but thought that she wouldn't hear me over everyone else's conversation, so I dialed her up on my cell phone. Jessica came back soon enough, but didn't seem overly concerned. In fact, she hardly took notice of the situation, saying something like, "Oh, it's all right," and spent more time investigating what was in a closet over to our right. Fortunately, the bumps disappeared after a few minutes.

*****
I've never met Maliha, but have seen several pictures of her. She's a very pretty little girl.

This dream is not based in reality; if anything was happening to her child, I'm sure Jessica would respond immediately, and run over anyone who was in her way. This dream came from conversations Jessica and I have had about Maliha's day care -- about how often the other kids there are sick, and about how many of them have allergies to certain foods that we took for granted when we were kids (peanut butter, etc.).