Chapter Five

Sickness

But no one came in the night, but all night long not one of them could sleep, so they sang “Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly,” “Yankee Doodle,” and “Pierre” and read Helen Keller, Pippi Longstocking, and Cats, but not a yawn came from their mouths, not a bit did their eyelids close. Not books, records, radio, TV, snacks, toys, games, or studying would do any good, not writing letters and calling midnight calls would do any good, not even sleeping pills. They could not speak, not a sound came from their mouths. Their parents called the hospital. The hospital said it would go away, “But stay amused with things and keep exercising every day. Eat lots every day.” “What do they have?” asked their parents. “Anfibyody,” they said, but they had to stay in the hospital because their mouths were sealed shut. They had to be fed by the veins in a incubator, and it would give them acid for exercising.