Chocolate Horse Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I’m all out of breath.”
    “Just do what you can,” Phil suggested.
    Lisa looked around for inspiration. There was a small toolbox that they’d borrowed from Max—just in case. She opened it and found a couple of screwdrivers. Then she turned her attention to the barrels of mixed grain in an alcove that had once served as a goat pen. Just what she needed. Tentatively, she tapped on the lids of the barrels. Each was filled with a different quantity of grain, so they made slightly different tones, quite like bottles filled with different amounts of liquids. There wasn’t much variety, but there was enough. Much to Carole and Phil’s amazement, she began pounding out a reggae beat—very un-barn-dance-like, but lots of fun. Carole and Phil got right into the mood and started dancing to Lisa’s music.
    They were on the second verse of Lisa’s improvised song when the barn door opened, filling the room with cool winter light. Mrs. Reg came in. Her face was grim.
    The music and dancing stopped immediately.
    “What is it?” Lisa asked. “What’s wrong with Alex?”
    “They’re doing tests,” she said. “They don’t know for sure, but …”
    “He just had a cold,” said Phil. “How bad could that be?”
    “It could be meningitis,” said Mrs. Reg. “That’s what they think, and that’s what they’re testing for.”
    “Meningitis? How could he get that?” asked Carole.
    “There’s really no way of telling how he got it,” said Mrs. Reg.
    “Then how do they know he
does
have it?” Carole asked.
    “All the symptoms,” Mrs. Reg said. “He started out with flu symptoms, then they got a lot worse, then he had a bad headache and a high fever. Then his neck got stiff. Finally, he got a rash. Those are all pretty strong indicators that this is meningitis.”
    “What do they do about it?” Lisa asked.
    “How’s Stevie?” asked Phil.
    “Could she get it?” Carole asked.
    Mrs. Reg sat down on one of the bales of hay. She seemed to need to rest, and it was clear she was going to do the best job she could to give them information. She took a deep breath and began. “You have a lot of questions, and I have some of the answers because I knew you’d want to know, so I talked to the doctor. Then I called my own doctor to be sure I understood. The mostimportant thing that he said to me was that our hospital is well equipped to take care of Alex. He’ll get the best possible treatment there. Now, here goes. First of all, Stevie’s fine, though unusually quiet—”
    “She gets that way sometimes,” Phil said. He didn’t mean to be funny, but since Stevie was almost always talking or laughing, what he’d said
was
funny, and her friends couldn’t help laughing a little bit. It felt good.
    Mrs. Reg smiled. “Not often, though,” she said. “Anyway, the doctor explained to me that this kind of meningitis is usually given to one person from another, about the same way cold germs are passed around. Because a person is so sick with meningitis when they’re most contagious, they’re not likely to be around other people, so it’s not easily passed around except to people who are near you. What that means is that Stevie, her parents, and her other brothers may have been exposed, and the doctors will give them a preventive vaccine. Based on what I’ve heard from Stevie, she tries to stay away from her brothers, anyway, so I think she’s safe.”
    “That’s just talk,” Phil said. “She really loves them a lot.”
    “I know she does,” Mrs. Reg said. “I was trying to be funny. The bottom line, though, is that the vaccine will protect her. She’ll be fine.”
    “And Alex?”
    Mrs. Reg shrugged. She really didn’t know. She told them that the doctors didn’t, either. “Meningitis is a very serious disease. They’ve taken a sample of the infected fluids, and they’ll test them to see exactly what kind of infection they’re dealing with.”
    “They don’t know?” Phil asked.
    “Not