TEA WITH THE MIDNIGHT MONSTERS

FEVER

"Millie! Wake up!"

Millie woke up inside of Hope's cage. The light had fallen, and the creatures had turned back to children again, yawning and blinking. "Millie!" She heard her name again.

It was Max. She shook off sleep, fled the cage, and ran off toward the root. "Coming!" she called. "Morning, everyone!"

"Something -- something's wrong with Pim!"

Pim? Wrong? Oh, no. Millie's heart fell. What did Max mean? She rounded the root and saw her brother in Max's cage. He was on the floor moaning and curled up in a fetal position.

"Pim?" she said to him, through the bars. He didn't answer. She moved to the door. "Open this up, please!" she said to Roy Crumb, across the void. "Something is wrong!"

Roy, who was already unlocking cages, strolled over and unlocked the door with a strange key -- a separate key on a red string. Millie pushed passed him and entered the cage. "Are you all right? Pim? What is it?" She kneeled and inspected her brother, placing her hand upon his face. Pim's cheeks were red and hot. "Pim, please? Are you awake? Are you all right?" His hair was soaked. "He's burning up," she said to Max.

Pim's eyelids fluttered open. "Millie," he mumbled. "Stop yelling. Let me sleep. I need to rest." Then he coughed a deep wet cough.

"Worse, you're worse," Millie said.

"No kidding. Leave me be. Talk to Max about the keys. Find the drawer with loose keys."

"Why keys? What keys?" Millie was confused.

"It's the new plan," Max whispered. "Our new plan."

"Well, forget about keys and plans for now, my brother needs food," Millie said. "And not turnips. He needs a doctor!"

Millie fled the void to the Mess, to find Cake.

She knew a child could die from a cold, if no one took proper care of the bug, especially a cold with a high fever, or a bad flu. She loathed her flu shots, but Caroline explained how basic flus could turn bad quick, and millions of children died around the world, every year, from the simple flu.

This whole situation was serious now, in a way it hadn't been yesterday. Yes, they were taken, and yes, they were trapped. But Millie had been pretending, in away, that she and Pim had left to a strange dark sleep-away camp. But this was no camp. Camps had nurses. Camps had medicine, First Aid Kits, and caring grown-ups. What would she do if Pim got worse? What if he died? She'd crumble to pieces and disappear; shrivel up. And Caroline, too, left alone, she'd die, too.

Caroline's words came to Millie: "We're going to take this step-by-step. First, we'll stay calm and act as if it will all turn out. We'll take each problem one-by-one... and solve each problem, one-by-one... That's all we can do every day. Any day..."

Millie knew she had to find medicine. Food, too. Pim needed nourishment.

She burst from the Mess through the kitchen doors. "Cake," she pleaded. "Pim is sick. Make him something to eat. Please. Not turnips."

Cake stood scooping soup into bowls. He looked up at Millie. "Well, if he is sick, it's his own fault..."

Millie, upset, grabbed the ladle from Cake's hand and brandished it in the air like a sword. "Help him or you're a liar," she said. "You said no one dies."

"Of course I'm a liar. What do you think?" Cake said. "I lie and cheat and kidnap kids. That's what I do."

"It's what you do, but it's not who you are. You said no one dies. Please help me find a Tylenol. And he won't eat the soup. He won't be a monster. He refuses. Can't you make him something else?"