It was like every other night in the past few weeks. The little boy sat up in bed, coughing and sniffing like crazy. His nose was running and the sum of tissues next to his bed was getting bigger and bigger. The boy had been struggling with the cold for weeks and just couldn’t sleep. In the evening he was this damn tired and just fell into bed. But as tired as he was, his lack of health kept him awake. He kept telling himself that it would get better, that it was only a matter of time before he was completely healthy again. Unfortunately, no improvement has occurred to date. Maybe he should just listen to his mother’s advice and go to the doctor.

Totally tired, the little boy wakes up in the morning and watches his cute little cat, who is sleeping at the foot of the bed. She’s there every night. She has been Tim’s only friend since the family moved to another city because of his father’s new job. He loves the little cat and cuddles with her every night. Tim drags himself down to the breakfast table. It is Saturday and his mother is already waiting for him with freshly smelling bread. Full of anticipation, Tim sits down at the table and looks expectantly at the richly laid table. His mother looks at him and expresses a critical good morning. Tim returns the greeting while his nose is still running.
“It can’t go on like this, Tim!” She says to him. Tim’s good mood evaporates suddenly and he looks at his mother questioningly. “What?!” he only says, although he knows exactly what his mother wants to say with it.
“You are allergic to something and we have to get it tested now!”

One week later, Tim is sitting at the dermatologist and watches the nice medical assistant give him various substances under the skin. For this purpose, the lady has made eight different, carefully arranged cracks in his skin. “This is a so-called prick test, it doesn’t hurt at all!” She says and holds his arm with one hand. “If there is an allergy, there is only redness and wheals, which you can see immediately.” After treating all eight open areas with various means, the doctor’s assistant puts a small bandage around his arm and fixes it all with an adhesive strip. “Well, that should hold up first!” she says, giving him to consider that he should only take off the bandage in the evening so that no dirt gets into the open wounds. Tim nods in confirmation and is happy when he is finally allowed to go home.

The next day, Tim is just as tired at breakfast as the past few weeks.
“Honey, we have to finally remove the bandage, we should have done that last night!” His mother rebukes him. But Tim hides his arm under the table and only shakes his head. “We’ll do that later, it sure hurts to take the bandage away. The doctor made the tape across my skin.”
“Now don’t act like that, it only pulls briefly, then that’s done!” replies his mother. But Tim doesn’t want to, grabs his schoolbag and leaves the house in a hurry.
Like always, he goes to school all alone and is in no hurry to get there. He doesn’t like the other students and they don’t like him either.
The day at school seems to be endless and Tim is looking forward to finally be back home cuddling the little cat Lucy. Her soft fur under his hand and her loud purring in his ears. He does not feel so lonely when he is with her.

In the evening, Tim’s father is finally at home. Usually Tim is already in bed when he comes home from work and he is very happy to see his car in the driveway after coming home from school.
“Dad, Dad, you are at home!” He calls in the hallway and storms into the house full of anticipation.
“But boy, what have you done with your arm?” His father wants to know immediately.
Tim wants to wave off and not let the joy be taken away, but his father persists.
“Oh, that’s just from the allergy test, it doesn’t hurt!” Says Tim casually, hoping that he can distract from the topic. His mother adds that the bandage has to be removed urgently today, and that Tim has to show the result to his dermatologist tomorrow morning. The mother wants to grab the boy’s arm, but Tim pulls the arm away. “I’m afraid it hurts!”
“Oh nonsense, what should hurt about it? That little bit of tape! ”Mocks the mother. She reaches for his arm again, but Tim jumps back, turns his back on his parents and runs up the stairs with the satchel on his back. With full swing he opens his door and throws himself on his bed crying loudly, right next to little Lucy. The cat looks at him questioningly, licks his face with his tongue and lies closer to him.
Tim sobs and cries and knows that Lucy understands him.

His mother follows him and strokes his short hair from his face.
“What’s going on my darling? You’re not really crying because of the tape. Come here, I’ll show you that it doesn’t hurt! “
Tim resigns and lets his mother do. Slowly she pulls off the bandage and with a jerk, the bandage is completely taken away. But Tim can’t look at it and starts crying much worse.
“It hurts so much mom!” He wails.

“No darling, it doesn’t hurt, you are not allergic to cat hair. Look at your arm, it’s not red at all! “
And after one week, Tim’s cold is finally gone.