“Maps?” I said.

Bree held up stack of parade maps to hand out, and said, “Check.”

It was after school, the week of Nutrition Day and the F.O.P. Parade. Bree and I were checking the lists and making sure we had everything ready. Dad said he had the “Home on the Range” problem solved. He didn’t explain what he had done, so I was still worried. But Bree checked it off the list.

Mom and Dad were in the study trying to call home to Bix again. They’ve been doing that for months. The study was full of machines and wires and things that didn’t work.

Bree and I had balloons to mark the route. Everyone marching in the parade knew when it started and where it started. But we still hadn’t decided on fund raising. We had talked about it lots.

You can’t charge people to stand in the street and watch the parade.

You can’t charge people to march in the parade.

“Maybe a parade is the wrong way to raise funds,” I said.

“Mrs. Bumfrey raised lots of money,” Bree said. “She just had people stand around with buckets. While people watched the parade, the bucket people begged for money. But every year, the money was less and less. Chief Glendale said to try something different.”

I just wanted to give up. On Bix, Mom and Dad were important. But here we have to lie low. No one should look at us or think about us, or they might find out we are aliens. But making a living is hard. Planning birthday parties is hard. Planning this parade was even harder. We might do all this work and still not make any money. I flopped onto the floor and lay there with my arms and legs all jumbled up. Nothing was going to work.

Just then, the telephone rang. Mom came out of the study to answer it. I sat up and listened to Mom talk. It was bad news.

When she hung up, Mom said, “That was Chief Glendale. Mary Lee was taken to the hospital early this morning. She has an infected arm. The doctor thinks it was a spider bite.”

I swallowed hard. “It was that spider in the art cabinet!”

Bree said, “That was too small to make someone sick.”

Dad stood in the study door. “In the United States, there are only two poisonous spiders. The black widow, which is black and red. And the brown recluse, which is small and brown. If it was a brown spider, it was probably a brown recluse.”

I put my head on my knees and shivered.

“We need to go to the hospital to visit Mary Lee,” Bree said. “She will need friends.”

At that, I flopped out flat again. Hospitals were scarier than spiders. Hospitals take a long hard look at human bodies. But I have an alien body. If someone x-rayed me, they would find a bligfa and other surprising things.

“Yes,” Mom said firmly. “Mary Lee is your friend. You must go and visit her.”

“My mom can take us,” Bree said. “She is out of court early today.”

Mom frowned. “OK. Maybe that is a good idea.”

Which meant that Mom was scared of the hospital, too.

“It will be OK, Kell,” Mom said. “Just don’t let them do anything weird to you.”

At least I wasn’t shedding my skin today.

The hospital was alarmingly big. To find Mary Lee’s room, we had to walk down halls and halls and halls. And ride a big empty elevator. And walk down more halls and halls and halls. If I had to get out fast, I would be lost.

“Room 318B. Here we are,” Mrs. Hendricks said. Her shoes clicked and echoed in the empty hall. When she knocked, the booming made me jump.

I whispered, “This is quieter than a library.”

“That’s because people are sick and need to sleep,” Bree said.

Just then, the door creaked and opened.

I jumped backwards.

But Chief Glendale smiled at us and said, “Oh, it’s you two. Mary Lee will be happy to see you. She’s bored.”

The room was small and white. White sheets on the bed, white walls, white floors. Only the chairs were blue. Mary Lee wore a strange green nightgown.

I was embarrassed. I didn’t know what to say.

“Hey!” Mary Lee said. “Are we ready for the parade?”

“Yes,” I said.

Mary Lee frowned. “I guess I won’t get to march in the parade.” She nodded toward her arms. The spider bit her left arm and it was wrapped with white bandages. But her right hand had something on it, too. And a clear plastic tube ran from her hand to a plastic bag that hung on a metal tree.

“What is that?” I asked.

“It’s an IV,” she said.

“Ivy? Like the vine that grows on my house?”

Chief Glendale laughed. “No. It’s Intra-Venous therapy. That means a needle is in Mary Lee’s vein. It is connected to the bag of medicine, so the medicine goes straight into her blood. IV medicine will make her well faster.”

I didn’t like this hospital room. And I didn’t like the IV. I wanted to leave. But Mary Lee was a friend, and I knew my job was to cheer her up.

I sat on the blue chair and told about Mrs. Lynx and the water hose. “I think she got water up her nose.”

Mary Lee and Bree laughed, which made me smile, too. Maybe visiting a hospital wasn’t so bad.

Then a nurse came in. When she saw us, she said, “Oh, I can come back later.”

“No, please,” Mary Ann said. “Will you show my friends your stethoscope?”

Uh-oh.

Bree said, “Yes, I want to hear my heartbeat!”

The nurse put the stethoscope in her ears and held the circle part to Bree’s chest. “Yes, you are alive,” she said.

She put the stethoscope into Bree’s ears. Bree held the circle part to her own chest. She closed her eyes to listen. “THUMpa, THUMpa, THUMpa.”

She opened her eyes and smiled at the nurse. “Thanks!”

“You next?” the nurse asked me.

Danger! Danger! I had to think fast.

“No! Just let me listen,” I said. Or did I yell it?

“You don’t have to be scared. It won’t hurt you,” the nurse said.

“No.”

The nurse shrugged, “OK.”

She put the stethoscope into my ears and I held the circle to my chest. I closed my eyes to listen.

Nothing.

Silence.

I said, “THUMpa, THUMpa, THUMpa.”

I opened my eyes.

Mary Lee was frowning at me. “Can I listen to your heart?”

“No!” That time, I did yell.

I handed the stethoscope back to the nurse.

And my bligfa hurt. I had never felt so alien. If an Earthling doctor or nurse ever tried to listen to my heartbeat, they would think I was dead. Because I didn’t have a heart to beat. Would I ever get to go home to Bix?

The nurse stuck a thermometer in Mary Lee’s mouth. When it beeped she took it out and said, “Back down to normal.”

Chief Glendale said, “Good. We were worried last night when it was so high.”

I asked Mary Lee, “Why can’t you march in the parade on Saturday?”

Her dad answered first. “The doctor said no P.E. class or anything active for two weeks.

Mary Lee said, “Oh, Dad. Please! I’ve done the F.O.P. parade every year.”

Her dad just shook his head.

But that wasn’t fair. Mary Lee had done so much of the planning. She needed to be at the parade. I blurted out, “I’ll think of something.”

“Really?” Mary Lee’s frown changed to a big grin. “You really thought of something for Bree and Freddy’s birthday party. I bet you’ll think of some way to get me into the parade.”

“Yes, I will.” I had no idea how I would do it. But I had just promised. And I keep my promises.

Parade planning was harder than I thought. Earthling girls think Bix boys have all the answers. And that wasn’t good.