It was late Sunday evening when Lolly called Munch. She told him, “Thahn Ho is still really sick. Her mother told me that if she isn’t better by morning her doctor recommends that she be admitted into the hospital to receive IV fluids.”

Stunned he asked, “The hospital?”

“Yeah, they may have to do some tests on her.”

Guilt bit Munch in the ass. He had been so worried about throwing up that morning and now Thahn Ho was really, really sick. Hospital sick.

Lolly asked, “Munch are you there?”

“Uh, yeah. I told her dad at church that I would get her assignments together. She could be out a while, huh?”

“Could be. Her mom will call the school in the morning to notify her teachers. Then her dad will pick up her course work from school.”

Again, Munch went silent. He wouldn’t be able to do anything for Thahn Ho. She was really sick and he wouldn’t see her tomorrow. It could be several days or even a week or more depending on what was wrong with her.

Lolly cut into his silence, “Munch, reign in your brain. I know its already predicting disaster. While it is a possibility she could be worse come morning, it is also a possibility she could be better.”

“Do they, do they know what’s wrong with her?”

“A virus most likely”

“So it might be contagious?”

“Yeah, I guess. If Thahn Ho didn’t wash her hands or something.”

He knew she would have washed her hands. She was very neat and tidy.

“Okay Munch don’t go there. You haven’t even touched her. Yeah, you sat by her Friday night, but what she’s got most likely isn’t air born.”

But he had touched her. He had held her hand. Lolly must have not noticed, and if she hadn’t noticed then probably nobody else did either. They had been in the shadowed part of the hayloft. Still, as hard as he tried Munch could feel his too vivid imagination kicking into over drive. Two scenarios were playing out in his head simultaneously. The first was that Thahn Ho would be violently ill and die. The second was that he would become violently ill and die.

Lolly asked, “Munch I know you’re grounded from coming over here, but ask your mom if I can come over there.”

“Okay.” He pulled the phone and the long cord back into the kitchen.

Mama was grilling tofu. She took one look at his face and asked, “Is something wrong?”

His voice made this weird little squeak noise when he said, “Thahn Ho is really sick, she might have to go to the hospital in the morning.”

“Oh no, I am so sorry to hear that.”

He swallowed hard before he asked, “Would it be okay if Lolly came over for a little while?”

“Sure.”

Into the phone he said, “Mama said you can come over.” He told Lolly bye.

“Oh, Michael I know how much you worry. Lolly will be a good distraction for you.”

Yeah, Mama knew how much he worried. She also knew how his worries spiraled into apocalypses. His stupid brain. “Thank you for letting Lolly come over.

Lolly was there in a flash, accompanied by Fluff. She put the big cat down on the kitchen floor and he surveyed his surroundings. He sniffed the air. He had NO interest in tofu. The cat followed Lolly and Munch upstairs into the studio. He sniffed around and studied the space. The room was not tidy. There were many things to bat around on the floor and this intrigued him. The VERY NEAT and CLEAN world of Grandma Toady, did not ever contain so much potential prey.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Mama had bought a couple of turquoise beanbags and put them in the studio. Munch and Lolly fell into separate ones. Lolly’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Munch. She said, “You really like her don’t you and its just getting worse.”

He nodded. He really hoped she didn’t want to talk about that.

Perhaps she sensed he didn’t want to talk about it, or she had nothing to add to her comment but either way she said, “I think we should get a card and pass it around tomorrow. I can take it to the office and put it with her class work. Grandma Toady is going to call Mrs. Duong and tell her if needs her to, she can pick up Thahn Ho's class work and drop off at their house.”

Munch was instantly alert. He asked, “Would you go too?”

“Yup. You could come along.”

Could he?

“Your mama is not so mean as to keep you from delivering a card to a sick girl just because she grounded you.”

Possibly. Maybe not though. He could feel his brain begin to tank. He was scared. His stupid brain always took mole hills and created great big ginormous mountains. Instantly, Lolly was in the same bean bag as he was. She put her arms around him and said, “All we have is now. Right now Thahn Ho is at home. Her mom is taking good care of her. She could be much better by morning.”

Munch pressed his face against Lolly’s shoulder and whispered, “She could also be a lot worse.”

“Maybe, but we don’t know. Like Grandma Toady says, don’t go borrowing trouble.”

Trouble was something Munch always borrowed and paid for.

A wad of paper went skittering across the floor. Fat cat Fluff ran, sort of, and pounced on it. Prey captured.

Lolly released Munch and stood. “What you need to do is make Thahn Ho’s card.”

“Me. I thought you were going to give her one of those thousands of cards Grandma Toady and her Angels send out at church.”

“Nope. I just got the best idea. YOU are going to make her a card. So get drawing buster.”

Until she said it, it hadn’t even occurred to Munch that he could make her a card. This was something he could do for her. This was one way he could let her know he was thinking of her. “Okay. What should we put on it.”

Lolly sank down in the bean bag chair. Fluff slapped the wad of paper and chased after it. “For starters you should draw something pretty. She really likes birds and flowers.”

Ideas started percolating in his brain. These ideas began the slow work of pushing the fears out of his head. He asked, “What will the card say?”

“It won’t say get well. I think its dumb to tell a sick person to get well, because if they could force themselves to be well, they would be well. We should go with something like, Thinking about you and then just let everyone write her a little note in the card. I will pass it around. A cheerleader did that for Max when he broke his collar bone last fall and he liked it so much he actually started being nice to me again. And, he kept the card. It’s one his wall at home.”

Munch remembered when Max was being a total snot to Lolly. He was glad he got over it. “Yeah, okay, that sounds good. Now it is time for me to EMBELLISH.” He got up and started sorting through his drawing paper and colored pencils and markers. This would be a card to remember. This would be a card he hoped Thahn Ho would keep, maybe even put on her wall.

There were several false starts. Wads of paper littered the floor. In the midst of them, Fluff snored. Lolly had pulled a paper back out of her back pocket and was reading. Finally, Munch came up with an image the hoped Thahn Ho would like. It was a river, a teal river, with sparrows flying over it. He showed it to Lolly.

“Oh, Munch that is too beautiful to be just a card. It should be framed.”

Actually, he was thinking the same thing, but this was a card and it would remain a card.

After several silent moments of thought, Lolly said, “I know what we can do. Cut a square of card board the same size as the card and we can wrap it in Saran Wrap so people don’t get it all grungy when the sign it.”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Who all are you going to ask?”

“Just people who actually know her. She is so quiet in my classes she’s practically invisible. Still, Trevor, Jake, Lisa, Grace, Max, you, me and Mitzi.”

“I think Grandma Toady and Mama would want to sign it too.”

Lolly nodded, “They would. We will get all the home signatures and take it to school tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Later, when Munch was alone in his room, he kept looking at the card he made. Would she like it? More importantly would she be better in the morning? She just had to be better in the morning. He did something that was very rare for him. He prayed the Rosary for Thahn Ho. He had to get out his catechism, because he couldn’t remember all the words. Honestly, he didn’t know if it would do any good, but he had to do something, and this was the something he chose.

For awhile he stood at his window staring up at the stars. A fragile peace began to settle over his anxious mind. He pulled his sleeping bag out of his closet and took it up to the studio. He spread it out beside the window. Right now, what he needed most was to focus on something bigger than himself and all his worry. The moon was rising.