Wonder if Ma and Pa could be persuaded to accept a bit of modern medicine? They have this mindset that everything invented past the year of 1900 is all big corporations trying to trick us into giving them money. I mean, I know that’s true sometimes, but I never got any vaccinations when I was a kid because ‘it’s all doctor claptrap, our family is healthy’, and…well, they HAD to take that one back after I sort of caused a small outbreak of smallpox at my school. They wanted to remove me from school and just got for homeschooling, but that was a red flag, the authorities got involved…yeah, we don’t really talk about that in the Jacoby clan.
Still, Pa’s breathing is getting pretty bad, and he’ll never go to the doctor about it. I was in the computer lab at school (I don’t get that much technology at home, so I spend a lot of time there…) and I did some research on portable hyperbaric chambers. Melbourne residents are pretty forward thinking when it comes to modern medicine. I gotta say, they don’t LOOK like they’d scare a technophobe. There are some glass ones that look a bit space-agey, but the portable ones just look kinda like inflatable pods. Of course, getting Pa to lie in one for an hour a day is the biggest challenge, because when it comes to getting one in the house, I think Ma would be willing to compromise. It’s a health thing, and I think her hatred for new stuff would easily be outdone by her not wanting Pa to keel over while he’s working.
As per usual, I just have to play it carefully. Bide my time, bring it up at the right moment, and have my speech prepared. Or maybe in this case, I can talk to Ma about it alone. Tell her how in Melbourne, hyperbaric medicine is pretty chilled and common, and it could really help out around the farm. Gotta mention the farm…it’s all gotta be about the farm.
-Forrest Jacoby Jr. Jr.