"Oh, no! poor Tweety!" Laura sobbed. "Can we pray to God to make him alive again?"
Elizabeth shook her head. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but it doesn't work that way."
"But Jesus came back from the dead!"
"That was different."
"Why?"
Elizabeth frowned, wondering how to answer her daughter's question. Max saved her.
"Because Jesus is God, and God can do anything, right, Mama?"
"Right. Let's find a nice cloth to wrap Tweety in, and then we can bury him."
"But we have to have a funeral first!" Max insisted.
Just then Elizabeth heard the key turn in the lock, then the door being opened. She turned just in time to see Paul enter the house.
"Work was slow, so the boss sent us home early," he said. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Tweety died, Daddy!" Laura sobbed, running to her father, who picked her up and held her close.
"We were gonna have a funeral for him," said Max.
"That sounds like a good idea," Paul told his son.
Elizabeth found a box a pair of earrings had come in to put the tiny body in, and Paul led his family into the back yard, where he dug a shallow grave in which to bury it.
"We have come here today to pay our last respects to Tweety," he began. "He was a good bird, and he's gone to his reward. We will miss him, but we take comfort in knowing he's safe in the hands of God."
Paul started to walk away, but Laura grabbed his arm.
"We have to sing, Daddy!"
Paul began to sing, and the others joined in. "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."
With a grin, Laura skipped happily off to play.
One morning, Elizabeth told Max he wasn't going to school that day.
"Why not?" he asked.
"I'm taking you and Laura to the health department," his mother replied. "You know how Ginny walks with a limp? That' because she got polio when she was younger. There's a new shot that just came out that will keep you and Laura from getting polio like she did."
Laura's eyes grew wide. "Will it hurt?"
"It'll just be a little stick, like when you prick your finger with a needle," Elizabeth told her.
Laura scowled. "I hate needles!"
"It'll be over with really fast," said Max. "I'll hold your hand so you won't be scared."
Paul had ridden to work with a friend that morning so Elizabeth could use the car to take the children to the health department. She had to drive downtown, which took almost an hour. By the time they got there, Laura had fallen asleep, slumped up against the window on her side of the back seat, and Elizabeth had to shake her awake.
Max and Laura held hands as they followed their mother into the long, white building. Elizabeth walked to the counter, behind which sat a smiling young woman with curly brown hair and brown eyes.
"I've brought Max and Laura Brimmer for their polio vaccinations," Elizabeth told the woman, who handed her a clip board to sign.
The two children sat looking at magazines in the waiting room until a nurse called them and then led them down a hallway to a small room.
As the nurse swabbed Laura's arm with alcohol, the little girl primped up the cry. "I'm scared!" she wailed.
"I'll hold your hand," Max offered.
"Close your eyes and think about something happy," the nurse suggested.
Laura squeezed her eyes shut as the needle pricked her skin.
"There, now, it's all over!" the nurse said.
Laura's eyes popped open. "That didn't hurt at all!"
After Max received his vaccination, Elizabeth took the children to a nearby drugstore for milk shakes.
The children were watching from the living room window when Paul was dropped off that evening, and they raced to open the door for their father.
"Hey!" Paul ruffled Max's hair, hugged Laura, and kissed Elizabeth's lips. "How did everything go?"
"Everything went fine," Elizabeth told him.
"Laura was scared, but I held her hand and she was OK," Max told his father.
"We got milkshakes after the shots!" Laura added. "I had strawberry and Max had chocolate!"
"I'm so glad everything turned out all right," said Paul.
That night, Elizabeth snuggled up in her husband's arms. "I remember when my Mama got polio, when I was just a little girl," she said. "All of us were so scared she'd never walk again, but John-Boy tried some new treatments on her, and she got better."
"With these new shots, that will soon be a thing of the past, thank God," Paul replied.
