The next morning Jessie woke up early as usual to cook breakfast for Ben, Lizzy and Becca before school, as Karen had already left to take Joshua to preschool, planning to run a few errands on the way.

Jessie opened the fridge. Not much despite the recent restock. She pulled out a carton of eggs and cracked a few into a bowl.

She did not notice the red speckles on the bottoms of two of the eggshells. She tossed them straight into the trashcan. The yolks looked perfectly normal, so she continued to scramble them. putting a frying pan on the stove with her other hand.

Lizzy and Rebecca came downstairs and poured themselves some cereal. As they were adding the milk, Jessie yelled "Guys! I'm making scrambled eggs!" Lizzy and Rebecca shrugged and shoved spoonfuls of coral in their mouths. Jessie sighed.

By the time she had finished cooking the eggs, Ben had come into the kitchen, drawn by the aroma of hand-cooked breakfast. He poured himself a drink, thanked Jessie for breakfast and ate. Now Jessie realized she had about half an hour to get ready. She rushed upstairs and showered, dressed, did her hair and her makeup, said goodbye, and left for school.

The rest of the day went as usual: boring lectures, a pop quiz, gross lunch...

When she got home hours later she saw that Ben wasn't on the computer, his X-Box, or his guitar. This, of course, worried her and she went into his room to check on him.

He was lying on the bed.

"I don't feel so good, Jess," he said. "I think it's those eggs I ate."

She felt his forehead. He had a little temperature.

She dismissed it as a bug, told him so, and went up to do her homework.

Over the next few days, Ben's condition worsened. His fever went up a couple degrees a day, and he had no appetite. Still he ate some soup Jessie made for him. Nothing unusual happened. Ben refused to see a doctor--thought, as Jessie had, that it was just a bug. He took Ibuprofen every four hours. This or something else made him start hallucinating a couple of days later.

He saw fires--he would keep calling for Jessie to put them out, quick, but she, of course, couldn't see them. They started out as just little match-sized flames sparking up from his CD player, then gradually he started seeing flames out the window, and, when it got really bad, he started seeing his closet door glow and hearing crackles coming from within. When his fever got to be one hundred eight, he agreed with his mother to go see a doctor.

Jessie went along; Lizzy would stay to watch over Rebecca and Joshua.

Afterward, Jessie wished she hadn't been there to see what happened.