’Try this one. It’s totally not too sour.’ Lily passes Kat a bright red lolly covered with sparkly sugar.

Lily isn’t allowed to go to tap class after school because of her tonsillitis, so Kat invited her over to her place. On the way, they stopped at the supermarket and bought a little bag of funny spicy, sour and sweet lollies. You never knew which was which until you popped it in your mouth, but Lily’s lolly bag from Amy’s party had had a red one in it. So Lily knew exactly what the red ones tasted like.

Kat takes the red lolly from Lily and pops it in her mouth. Her eyes go wide like a goldfish, and her mouth stretches into a giant O. She flaps her hands and breathes in and out super-fast.

’Ooooooooh! HOT!‘ She sticks her tongue all the way out and fans it with her hands. ’Not sweet!‘

‘Gotcha!’ Lily laughs hard. She hands Kat her drink bottle, and Kat guzzles the cool water.

‘Ish ma thongue burnt?’ Kat asks, poking her tongue out and crossing her eyes, trying to check out the damage.

‘No!’ Lily laughs. ‘But let’s go get some ice cubes. You can make me eat two sour ones at the same time to get me back!’

Lily and Kat are at Kat’s front door, so they tuck their lollies away deep in their schoolbags before they go inside. Kat has five brothers, and her youngest brother, Joe, gets sick a lot, so Kat’s mum only allows lollies in the house on Very Special Occasions. Which is kind of confusing because, when you are a kid, any time you have a lolly is a Very Special Occasion. Weird!

As Lily and Kat step through the front door, Joe comes barrelling down the hallway and smacks right into them.

’JOE!‘ Kat roars.

‘Sorry!’ puffs Joe. ‘Escaping the wolf ... he’s not coming in! Not by the hairs of my chinny-chin-chin!’ Joe is huffing heavily, gasping each breath.

Just then, Kat’s mum appears at the end of the hallway, following Joe with an inhaler. Joe immediately darts away.

‘Hi Lily! Hi little chika-dee.’ Kat’s mum does a funny little chicken dance down the hallway and then kisses Kat’s forehead. Lily thinks Kat’s mum is seriously cool. Kat just rolls her eyes.

‘I just need to get Joe to use his inhaler,’ Kat’s mum says, waving the inhaler with a flourish. ‘His lungs are playing up.’

Lily notices Kat’s mum’s eyes change when she says that. Like the sky changes on a summer day when that first rain cloud passes over. ‘Go into the kitchen and I will make you both a snack in just a minute.’

Lily notices Kat has gone very quiet and is standing very straight and stiff. Kat just nods and Lily follows her to the kitchen.

‘Is Joe okay?’ Lily asks, as she and Kat sit up at the kitchen bench.

Kat sighs. ‘You know how Joe was born reeeally early?’

Lily nods. Kat’s brother was teensy tiny and super-fragile when he was born. ‘Not quite cooked’ Kat’s mum always says. Ever since then, Joe gets sick a lot and is in and out of hospital.

‘Well,’ Kat continues. ‘He gets bad lung infections now, and he needs to use an inhaler, but he really doesn’t like it.’

‘C’mon, sweet little piggy,’ Kat’s mum is saying to Joe in the lounge room. ‘One more huff and puff and you will be made of bricks again!’

Lily raises her eyebrows at Kat. Piggy?! Lily doesn’t want to be rude and ask a whole heap of questions, but her eyebrows sure do! Missy’s little sister Katherine with her Red Riding Hood cloak and the needle wolf, now Joe becoming bricks, and Kat’s mum huffing and puffing! Had Lily wandered into some magical fairytale parallel universe? Or was everyone ‘going method’ along with her? No wonder Lily’s eyebrows had so many questions! Spooky-freaky, but also ultra-coolness!

Kat grabs an apple from the bowl on the bench and turns it around between her fingers.

‘From when Joe was about three years old,’ Kat explains, ‘whenever he got sick, Mum read him fairytales.’ Kat speaks in her ultra-quiet voice. ‘His favourite is The Three Little Pigs and Mum would tell him to imagine that when he was sick he was made of sticks. But, when he came to hospital, took his medicine and let the doctors do their job, all this helped change his body into a house of bricks.’

‘Ahh …’ says Lily. ‘So the wolf couldn’t blow him down?’

‘Exactly! If Joe imagined his illness was the wolf and imagined his body was getting stronger, built out of bricks, he seemed to get better much quicker.’

Kat does a little cough, like she’s swallowed a piece of apple too fast. But she hasn’t taken a bite of her apple yet. Lily wonders if it’s one of those little balls of sadness that gets stuck in your throat when you talk about something that makes your heart hurt.

’Whoa!‘ breathes Lily. ‘That is incredible … so he will be okay if he uses his inhaler?’

Kat nods. ‘Totally!’ she says. ‘Joe’s seven now, and he is a bit smaller than the other kids, but he’ll catch up. Plus, he is super-smart, and much better than me at gymnastics! And he … he …’ Kat stops talking and looks at the apple again, her cheeks burning bright red.

Oh no! Poor Kat! Lily can tell Kat is still super-scared Joe might get sick again. Lily wants to make Kat feel better.

‘Hey, Kat …’ Lily says, with the dreamy, faraway voice she sometimes uses when a big idea pops into her head. ‘Do you realise Joe was totally “going method” when he was imagining himself as the house of bricks? Just like I do for drama class. Just like a Very Amazing Performer! And when he became that house of bricks he learned to face his fears. Now he isn’t scared of anything. Miss O would be ultra-impressed!’

Lily’s friends sometimes get their own faraway look in their eyes when Lily starts talking about ‘going method’, but not today!

Kat smiles a big, juicy, beaming smile. ‘And he’s never going to be a house of sticks ever again!’

Lily grins at her friend. That’s when she realises the truth, like when Little Red Riding Hood saw the wolf from behind the disguise of Grandma. Fairytales really can help people. Lily can see that now … and maybe they aren’t so babyish after all … FACT!