Staying Well

"Eddie says the boy he lives with is sick," Emil said. "He says it's something called flu. Eddie is afraid he is going to get sick, too."

Veronika closed her book and looked at Emil and Charlotte, who had just come in from school. "Dolls can't get sick," she said. "Not for real. We can pretend to be sick, but then we can just pretend to get well again when we're tired of pretending to be sick."
Charlotte pulled a chair over and sat down nearby.  

"We can get damaged," Charlotte said. "We can fall and get scrapes, like real children, but the scrapes don't heal."
"Some dolls can get silver eye," Emil pointed out, "but that doesn't heal, either."

"No," agreed Charlotte. "They have to take off your head and change your eyes for new ones."
Emil sat down on the bean-bag chair. "How do real children get sick?" he asked. He looked at Veronika, because he thought she might know the answer.

"Well," Veronika began, "it depends on what kind of sickness it is, but Eddie said it was the flu, and that he thought it was catching, so I'll tell you about that."

Charlotte and Emil looked at Veronika expectantly. That means they thought she was going to say something important.
Veronika put her book down, so she could talk with both hands. "The flu is caused by something called a virus (VY-rus)," She explained.

"It's a thing that's alive, but it's so small you have to have a special microscope (MY-krow-skope) to see it. A microscope is a thing you can look through to see things that are very tiny. An ordinary microscope is small enough to sit on a desk."

"Viruses are so tiny," Veronika went on, "you have to use a special kind of microscope. It's called an electron (ee-LEK-tron) microscope. An electron microscope needs its own room, it's so big."

"What do viruses look like when you use an electron microscope?" Charlotte asked.

"The pictures of viruses I've seen," Veronika replied, "look like pretty little balls. You would never know they were bad things."

"There are lots of different kinds of viruses," Veronika said. "There are good viruses and viruses that make people and animals sick. Some people call the viruses that make them sick germs (JERMS) or bugs. When these things enter a human person's body, they grow and spread and make the person sick. That person might tell people they had caught a bug."

"I thought a bug was like an ant or a fly," Emil said.
"Yes," agreed Veronika. "Insects like ants and flies are called bugs, but they are different. These bugs get inside the person's body and make them sick. How sick the person becomes depends on the virus and how healthy the person is."
"How do they get there?" Charlotte asked.

"Lots of ways," Veronika replied. "Sometimes a sick person sneezes, and the tiny virus bugs go into the air around them. Then another person breathes them in."

"I'm glad I don't need to breathe," Emil said. "Is that why dolls don't get sick?"
"That's part of it," Veronika agreed. "Only living things can get sick, and we aren't alive in that way. We're alive in imagination."
"So that means we can't make children sick!" Emil exclaimed.

"Well, not usually," Veronika replied, "but it is possible for a child to get a virus from us."
"But if we can't breathe out the viruses,"Charlotte said, "how can we make a child sick?"

"It's because another way a human person can get a virus is by touching something that a sick human has touched," Veronika explained. "Let's say Eddie's boy, who is sick, is playing with Eddie. He wipes his nose with his hand, plays with Eddie some more and then puts Eddie down. Then another child, say the boy's sister, picks Eddie up and plays with him. She could get the virus on her hands. Viruses can live on Eddie's vinyl for several days."
"Then the sister would get sick!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"Maybe," Veronika replied, "if the sister rubbed her eye or scratched her nose. Maybe if she went to get something to eat and touched her food with her hands."
"So then she would get sick?" Emil asked.

"She could get sick, yes," Veronika agreed, "but if she washed her hands before she touched her face or ate something, she might not get sick. She could still get sick from breathing in the air close to her brother, especially if he is coughing or sneezing."
"So to keep from getting sick," Emil said, "children should not get too close to someone they know is sick and should wash their hands if they touch anything that person touches?"

"Washing hands is very important, anyway" Veronika agreed. "Children need to wash their hands before they eat and after they use the toilet, but if they are around someone who is sick, it's even more important."

"Why after they use the toilet?" Emil asked. 
"I know that," Charlotte said. "Mandy and I have cleaned the toilets in the house. That's where people get rid of waste from their bodies."

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "Because people are alive they need food and water to fuel their bodies. When their bodies take everything they need out of what they eat and drink, they have to get rid of what's left over along with anything else that would be bad to leave inside them. They put it in the toilet."
"So the waste must be dirty," Emil said, "if their bodies need to get rid of it. Is that why people need to wash their hands?"

"That's right, Emil," Veronika agreed. "They don't want to leave the bathroom and touch things other people might touch. It's important not just to wash their hands, but to wash their hands completely."

"People need to wash both sides of their hands," Veronika explained. "They need to wash all of their fingers and their thumbs, and in between their fingers, and use lots of soap. Soap kills most viruses. I know if I sing 'Happy Birthday To You' to myself twice or recite my A-B-Cs once while I'm washing my hands, use lots of soap, rub it on both sides of my hands and all sides of each finger, my hands will be clean."

"We can't wash between these two fingers," Charlotte said, holding up her right hand, the one with the two fingers stuck together. She knew this because it was the reason she couldn't learn to play the piano.

"That's OK, Charlotte," Veronika said. "Viruses can't reach between those two fingers, so you can just wash what you can reach. Most real children can reach between those two fingers, so they need to wash there, too."
Emil had been thinking. "But if people can still get sick from touching something a sick person has been touching, there could still be a lot of places a virus could be."

Veronika nodded. "There are a lot of things a sick person can do to help keep others from getting sick," she said. "Sick people can use a tissue to blow their noses and then throw the tissue away."

"They should always cover their mouths if they cough or sneeze," Veronika went on, "and they should wash their hands before they touch something another person might need to touch."
"What if Eddie had the virus on him when he came to school?" Emil asked. "He's in my class. I could have the virus on me right now. I could give it to the human people we live with."

"I played with Eddie today, too," Charlotte exclaimed as she stood up. "Let's go wash our hands right now, Emil, before we touch anything else."

Charlotte and Emil went straight to the bathroom and washed their hands completely. They sang "Happy Birthday To You" twice as they washed, and they washed between all the fingers except the two fingers on their right hands, the ones that are stuck together. They used lots of soap.

Their human people did not get sick.


Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Photos credits from this story:
Microscope: Pawel Czerwiński on Unsplash
Electron microscope: Science in HD on Unsplash 
Virus: CDC on Unsplash
Hand washing model: Johan Stuart

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