“Kids Korner” was supposed to be a playroom of sorts so the kids could interact instead of feeling trapped and isolated in their rooms, but all Ella saw it as was a breeding ground for germs, and ever since the crayon fiasco she harbored a dislike for small children. Remission or not, she didn’t trust her immune system enough to risk it, lest she end up the in ICU again with walking aspiration pneumonia.
Rose said she got it from throwing up so much she had breathed it into her lungs and that’s what “aspirating” meant. Ella had written on a piece of paper she thought it meant “butt sweat” and showed it to her. It had taken Rose almost a solid minute to stop laughing and explain “ass” and “perspiring” were two separate words and were not usually used in the same sentence. It had from that moment on become their inside joke to say, or in Ella’s case write, that “it was so hot in here she was aspirating”.