Ron, thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed this story. It was one of my later additions, written for one of the anthologies. As far as your questions, Aiden's parents weren't involved in the sickness, because it came on quickly and he reacted positively to the treatment, so they didn't feel it was necessary. As far as the attack, being a college man Aiden wanted to handle his own problem without involving his parents. Being adept at martial arts, he felt he could handle or defuse any situation that arose, whether his assumption was correct or not.