Tiny lay there silently while the tears dried on Abby’s face. “We’ll get through this together,” said Abby softly. She held Tiny’s hand. In seconds Tiny fell asleep.
Abby tried to remember everything she could about Tiny. A few things stood out in her mind. For at least a year Abby had been aware that Tiny had bonded with her in a way that was difficult to understand.
She can see so vividly, so painfully, that our world is badly messed up. The adults are failing in their most basic job. Tiny somehow counts on me to make it okay. But what can I do? And then there’s this relationship with the Good Fairy and her daughter Emily.
Tiny talks to them, and tells us what they say. Tiny seems to think it’s her job to let us know what the Good Fairy feels and thinks, her messages to this fallen world. Come to think of it, there’s a similarity there with how the mapstick talks to me. A strong similarity. Tiny and I have these important personalities living inside us. They seem to be our friends! Is it just my imagination, or do they use us to help the world in some way, even if its just a little bit?
Abby remembered every word of her conversation with Tiny. She felt that Tiny was beyond her, speaking from some deeper level of human experience. And yet Abby could identify with everything Tiny said. Her words only seemed irrational. On closer examination, they were full of insight about their lives, their vulnerabilities, and even the recent conversation between her mother and Dr. Bear, a discussion Tiny probably couldn’t even hear. What did all this add up to?
Same thing as before. Tiny counts on me, literally counts on me, to make the world okay! She gives me a responsibility way beyond my strength! How does that song of Wendy’s go?
All I have left is the best I can do
It’ll take all we’ve got to carry us through
Then Abby remembered every word Dr. Bear had said. It appeared that the doctor knew both more and less than she let on. On the one hand, she knew that one basic symptom of this disease was dreaming while awake. Apparently something gets blurred between the dreamworld and the waking world. Abby could hear Dr. Bear trying to convey the seriousness of this symptom without scaring Glenda.
Dr. Bear knows that I can probably handle this better than Glenda. But Dr. Bear can’t handle this herself. I can see how that hospital might appear to a doctor. Something chaotic, something they never saw before. And once the patient is left alone, the boundaries begin to disappear. So… the doctors really don’t know what to do. Could this breakdown have lasting effects, leave people broken and lost? Surely the doctors are very worried, not to mention that some adults might get this disease. Even I might get it! I really need to talk to Wendy. I absolutely must. Sometimes I feel like I have this disease already.
As the time went by, Abby could hardly keep her eyes open. Tiny had been sleeping quietly, but suddenly began to thrash around. Abby felt her forehead, and was shocked by the heat. She found a washcloth and soaked it in cool water, wrung out the excess water, and placed it on Tiny’s forehead. Tiny continued to roll back and forth, mumbling and sweating. Abby filled a glass of cold water, and waited for an opportunity to help Tiny drink.
Out of the east window a faint light was drifting into the room, the first sign of morning. The washcloth on Tiny’s forehead was no longer cool. Abby soaked it again, and used it to wipe the sweat from Tiny’s head and neck.
She really needs a cool bath. But I’d rather have Glenda do that. Perhaps I’ll wake her.
Tiny sat up, her pajamas drenched in sweat. She seemed full of energy, but half-asleep. She stared at nothing. Abby hugged her and said, “I’m here. It’s okay.” But Tiny did not seem to hear her. Her head turned this way and that. “Don’t do that!” she said to no one in particular. Abby hugged her again, but Tiny shrugged her off. She was becoming more agitated, and Abby went to the living room and woke up Glenda.
“I think I’m going to need your help. Tiny needs a cool bath, a bowl of that soup, and some hugs. Oh, where are those pills that keep fever down?”
“Oh my God, it’s morning already.” Glenda jumped up and entered the bedroom. “Tiny, its me. I’m here.” She hugged Tiny, who continued to thrash around. Glenda glanced at Abby. “She’s so hot!” Tiny began to cry, and yelled “Stop! Stop!” But she didn’t seem to be talking to Glenda. “Please stop! Please!” Glenda was in tears.
“I’ll run a cool bath,” Abby told her. Glenda led Tiny to the bathroom and stripped off her wet pajamas. The cool water seemed to soothe her. Glenda brought her back to bed in a huge bath towel. Tiny lay down quietly. The morning sun was shining through the window.
Glenda took her temperature. “It’s over 104 degrees! What are we going to do? Has it been like this all night?”
“No, not at all. But I’m worried. I haven’t been able to feed her. I haven’t found a good moment to help her drink. When she wakes she keeps moving around, and doesn’t hear what I say.”
“Let me try to give her these pills, and you hold a glass for her.”
But Tiny was now sound asleep. “I think I’ll wait a bit,” said Glenda. “We’ll get her to drink as soon as she begins to wake. Let’s take this moment to talk. What are we going to do? This is not good.”
Glenda rose and paced around the room, looking out the windows. “I could call Dr. Bear again. But what can she do?” Glenda turned back to Abby. “We’ve got to give her these medications and get her to drink. Let’s try.”
Glenda hugged her and raised her to a sitting position. Abby put the glass to her lips and poured a bit of water. It spilled down Tiny’s chin. Abby tried again and Tiny swallowed, and swallowed again. Her eyes opened. “Here Tiny,” Glenda said. “Swallow these.” She popped two pills in Tiny’s mouth, and Abby put the glass to her lips. Tiny swallowed. Then she shook Glenda off and lay back down. They let her sleep.
Glenda made two cups of coffee. They sat together, feeling the coffee waking them up. “I have to admit,” Abby told her, “I’m not sure how to handle this. Dr. Bear certainly gave us a picture of the situation, and she had good advice… but still, they don’t even know what this disease is. It’s a brand new experience. What more can she say?”
Glenda nodded. “Of course, we’ll get Tiny to drink a few swallows of soup. We’ll give her more cool baths… but it doesn’t feel like enough. Tiny seems to be getting worse. We’re moving in the dark, and so are the doctors.”
Abby was staring off into the distance. Then she looked at Glenda. “I don’t know if I ever told you, but when I was sick as a child Wendy helped me. She has her own medicines. I’m thinking maybe you’d like her to visit.”
“Wendy? Wendy would visit me? To help Tiny?”
“I think so. I wouldn’t have suggested it, but Tiny does seem pretty sick, and we seem to have run out of ideas. A hundred people are probably bothering Dr. Bear, and I don’t see leaving Tiny at the hospital. I think Dr. Bear is right, Tiny is better off here. And I could find Wendy in a few hours. Perhaps she’ll come here by evening. I’m not promising…”
“Yes, please!” Glenda jumped at the offer. “Yes! As soon as possible!” She began to cry.
Abby looked at her timer. It was 7:15. She called Peter to say that she needed the day off to try to get help for Tiny.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“It’s a bad flu, or maybe a new kind of flu. The doctors aren’t sure what it is. Nothing seems to help.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll tell you later, after I do it.”
“Keep me informed. I’m worried about Tiny now, and the rest of the children too.”
In fifteen minutes Abby walked out Glenda’s back door and entered the forest near the Great Oak Tree. She felt bad for Peter, left with too few staff and too many worries. But Abby was determined to bring Wendy to see Tiny. Her motivation was overpowering. She had no doubts.
It was a warm, sunny day. The late August leaves were still green and full. Almost no sun reached the forest floor. She glanced back a few times but nothing moved in the dense shadows. Everything’s going my way. My plan is working out! Abby was in the midst of doing good, and felt invincible.
I wish I had a shorter route to Wendy’s house. There must be a faster way, probably underground. But the way Chi Chi taught me is not fast at all. And I miss having the mapstick. I’m sure the mapstick knows a faster way. Abby concentrated on all she knew about the underground, but she knew it was useless. Even if she went back to the churchyard for the mapstick, she would have to enter the underground in broad daylight. It was a risk she couldn’t take.
So Abby pressed forward with no rest, crossing the Half Moon in her dinghy, climbing the cliff, and finally jogging through the great beech woods up to Wendy’s door. She let herself breath for a moment, and knocked. There was silence for a longer time than Abby could endure, and she knocked again. There was no sound.
Oh no, please! Wendy’s got to be around somewhere.
She heard the sound of steps somewhere in the house. She knocked again, and heard Wendy’s voice calling, “I’m coming! I’m coming! Can’t I have a moments peace around here? What is it?”
Wendy opened the door with a hard shove, and was surprised to see Abby standing there. “Well! I didn’t expect to see you! That Peter Hood never ceases to bother me. And my father and Chi Chi encourage him. Do I need more wood? More bread? Fish? Am I okay? Hunters are a few miles away and I should stay indoors.” Wendy paused and stared in fury. “I am not an invalid! I will not be treated like an old lady! I have important tasks on hand and will not be interrupted!”
Abby waited, and then said quietly, “We need your help, Wendy. Tiny is very sick. Dr. Bear doesn’t seem to be able to help.”
“Hmm…” said Wendy. “Well, it’s that time. Look, I’m in the middle of something. Come in and tell me about it.”
Abby followed her through two rooms to the large workshop more or less stuck onto the back of the house. Two tables were covered with plants, chopped herbs, strange containers, vials, tubes, books, and pages of scribbled writing. Nearby stood a black stove with a large copper pot on the burners. The pot was covered by a metal cone, with a tube that conveyed the vapors to a vessel on one of the tables. Abby caught a brief glimpse of the liquid and steam in the pot, glowing with a powerful, deep red color.
Using a long rod with a wooden handle, Wendy prodded a steaming red mass floating in the pot. “Such a day to be interrupted!” she howled. “It’s the perfect day, the perfect moment. Months of work are at stake. Soon, in hours or days, this will harden into a vegetable stone, and believe me, we’re going to need it! But I can’t expect you to understand these things.”
“I tell you, Tiny is very sick. She needs your help.”
“I can’t just leave it unfinished!” cried Wendy, and shook her fist over her head. “Believe me, you’re going to need this work I’m finishing now.”
Abby stamped her foot. “What good is this if you can’t even help a sick child? This place is full of medicines you never use.”
Wendy looked at her and thought for a minute. “Hmm…” she said, and stoked her long chin with a forefinger. She uttered a heartfelt sigh, shrugged her shoulders, and said, “Help me move this.”
She tossed Abby an old rag. Wendy grabbed a similar piece of material and grasped a handle of the pot. Abby did the same, and together they set the pot on the stone floor.
“Well, that’s that,” sighed Wendy. She left the room and returned in a moment with a black knapsack. From a shelf full of beakers and bottles and small containers of every description, she selected a glass jar full of crushed pale gray leaves. With a shovel shaped spoon, she put a quantity of these leaves into a small bag, and closed it with a drawstring. Then she grabbed a dark little bottle about five inches tall stopped with a cork, and a few silver instruments, and put everything into the knapsack.
“I’ll have to go down to the cave,” she said. “If it’s serious, we might as well have the best with us, just in case.”
Wendy opened the wooden trap door at the back of her workshop, lit a candle with the glass cover, and disappeared down the very narrow stone stairway that descended steeply into the darkness. Full of curiosity, Abby followed, wishing she had the mapstick to light the way, and possibly speak to her about the mysteries below. She had been there many times, but had never seen Wendy’s most valued medicines. The cold air had a damp, musty scent that was very familiar.
The passageway began to descend again, but opened suddenly on a large cave glimmering in the light of the candle. Wendy stood near the left hand wall of the cave, facing a small door built into the rock. She was making small, rapid movements with one hand. Suddenly the door came open. Moving closer Abby saw a walk-in closet lined with shelves. She realized that the closet was a very secure refrigerator, constantly at a low temperature but never freezing. Jars of many sizes and shapes stood on the shelves. Nets of apples, onions, potatoes and other tubers, and a variety of dried plants hung from the ceiling. The sound of rushing water filled the air.
From a small cabinet Wendy removed a metal cylinder about the size of a man’s fist, and put it into a small leather bag. They then returned the way they had come. Wendy sat at the kitchen table, pursing her lips and staring at the large blue veins on the back of her hand.
She’s thinking, Abby told herself, and waited. What comes next?
“Well, we have the best, but hopefully we won’t need it today. There is very little of the best, but we can’t afford to fail. The fate of my mother, you know. It haunts me. Being a healer is a dangerous occupation. She treated a man, and apparently failed. She lost her life, and our homes were burned. Chi Chi and I were born in the stress of that moment, and my life is scared with that tragedy. I knew we were going to have to start treating very sick people again, but… you should know that we can’t afford to fail. And when the vegetable stone is gone, we can do no more. Oh, and we’re going to need the mapstick.”
Abby was surprised. “Why? What does the mapstick have to do with this?”
“You’re probably not aware of it, but the presence and light of the mapstick helps people heal. It reaches deep, and we’ll need it. For one thing, with the mapstick the vegetable stone will last longer, and the healing will be more certain. So think about it.”
“I’ve already been thinking about it. I would have it with me, except I won’t us the churchyard entrance to the underground in daylight.”
“We’ll have to find a solution, but not right now. I know a shortcut underground. Remember it. You’re going to need it.”
