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suddenly had this strange need to bite them, to bite her. I wanted to scratch and yell. But I felt so heavy.
    “I’m home, sweetie. I left as soon as Veronica called. I’m sorry it took so long.”
    “Miss Ronica?”
    “I sent her home. She said you were throwing up earlier. You’re dehydrated. You got too much sun today.”
    I struggled once more to sit up and then realized why I couldn’t, which was because Shinji was lying on my legs. Mom pushed him off the bed, but he hopped right back up again and laid down next to me.
    “Where’s Ben Nicholas?” I asked.
    “Outside, in his cage. Veronica put him away. She said you were playing with him in the yard all morning.” She shook her head. “You’re going to make him sick doing that, Cassie. Too much sun and too many treats. He needs some alone-time too, honey.”
    “We weren’t playing.”
    She didn’t hear me. “Why didn’t you come inside after Veronica told you to? You should have listened to her. It’s not good for you to be outside in the heat for so long.”
    “She only told me once.”
    “She shouldn’t have to ask more than that.”
    The smell of my sickness was making my head swim, making my stomach clench. But even with that filling my nose, I noticed a different smell coming off Mama now, sickly sweet and salty at the same time. She was sick now too, except it was a different sickness than mine and Ben Nicholas’s.
    “Drink this,” she told me. A straw poked out through the top of the bottle in her hand. Inside was a blue liquid, and the salty sweet odor made me gag. “You’re dehydrated and need to replace the fluids you lost, honey.”
    But I wasn’t dehydrated, like she said. I had the rabies. I knew this even though Miss Ronica hadn’t said anything. She’d been right about the bat all along, and now I was sick and somehow Ben Nicholas had it too, because he’d gotten bitten on the foot, just like me.
    “Come on, baby. I want you to finish this whole bottle.”
    My throat felt thick and tight, and I was sure if I tried to drink anything, I’d choke. Luckily, the phone rang just then, and Mama got up to answer it.
    “I’ll be back to check on you in a little while, honey.”
    “Okay.”
    I heard her run down the hall, taking the smell of her sickness with her and leaving me drowning in mine.
    I took the bottle to the bathroom and dumped most of it down the sink.
    On the way back, I could hear her in the kitchen asking, over and over again, who it was calling. “Is anybody there? Hello? Ramon? Is that you? Who’s there?”
    After a couple minutes, the house was quiet again.

    The next day, the day before Ben Nicholas died, Mama and Daddy decided we should go to the shore as a family. I could smell the unhappiness between them like a dark rain cloud filled with sharp electricity, except instead of lightning and thunder, this cloud was filled with fear and anger.
    “I need a moment at work first,” Daddy said, biting his lip. “Then it’s off to Islip Beach.”
    Of course, Mama didn’t want to go at all. She said the last thing I needed after yesterday was more sun, which led to another argument between them. Daddy kept telling her not to baby me, and Mama kept telling him as my mother it was her right. He argued that I’d finished two whole big bottles last night ( I hadn’t ) and was fine. He didn’t have to say it, but it was obvious he thought Mama was overreacting again.
    He slid a palm across my forehead and said, “She’s good, Lyssa. Cass, you want to go to the beach, don’t you? Of course you do.”
    I was feeling weak, but I knew if I told the truth about dumping the drink down the sink, I’d get in trouble, so I didn’t. Besides, I did want to get away from the house. It felt like the sickness had settled in here. Maybe if we could just get away for a few hours, then it would go away. So I told them yes, I wanted to go. In the least, we’d get to spend the day together as a family.
    The phone kept