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THE AMBULANCE ATTENDANTS ASKED MY mother if Steve was diabetic or epileptic She wasn’t sure but didn’t think so They also asked about allergies and everything, but she explained that she wasn’t his ht they’d take us with them in the aot Steve’s phone number and the name of his mom, but she wasn’t home One of the attendants asked my mother if she’d follow them to the hospital, to fill out as many of the forreed and bundled me and Annie into the car Dad still wasn’t home, so she called him on his cell phone to explain where we’d be He said he’d coht over

That was anot toI should tell the truth, but too afraid to Whatin a coma, Steve would own up immediately

"What happened in there?" Mo as fast as she could without breaking the speed lilad: I don’t think I could have lied straight to her face

"I’o to the bathroo?" she asked

"No," I lied, feelingwith shame

"I can’t understand it," sheblue I thought he was dead"

"I think he was bitten," Annie said I al in the ribs, but at the last second re on her to keep my secret

"Bitten?" Mom asked

"There were a couple of marks on his neck," Annie said

"I saw them," Mom said "But I don’t think that’s it, dear"

"Why not?" Annie asked "If a snake or a spider got in and bit hi her promise

"A spider?" Moo around biting people and sending them into shock, not around here"

"So as it?" Annie asked

"I’ that didn’t agree with him, or had a heart attack"

"Children don’t have heart attacks," Annie retorted

"They do," Mom said "It’s rare, but it can happen Still, the doctors will sort all that out They know s than we do"

I wasn’t used to hospitals, so I spent so out the forms It was the whitest place I’d ever seen: white walls, white floors, white uniforms It wasn’t very busy but there was a buzz to the place, a sound of bed springs and coughing,softly

We didn’t saythere Mo exaht be a while before they discovered rong "They sounded optimistic," she said

Annie was thirsty, so Moet drinks frolanced around while I was putting in the coins, toto wait?" she asked

"Until I hear what they have to say," I told her "We’ll let them examine him Hopefully they’ll knohat sort of poison it is and be able to cure him by themselves"

"And if they can’t?" she asked

"Then I tell them," I promised

"What if he dies before that?" she asked softly

"He won’t," I said