Keith was hovering somewhere between sleep and awareness. That ephemeral state where the sounds and perceptions of his surroundings were just beginning to impinge on his consciousness. He could hear the distant roar of traffic from beyond the slightly open window and smell the fresh spring air on the breeze which wafted through. The softness of the mattress beneath him was a balm to his aching body and he snuffled further into the pillows, trying to find a more comfortable spot. As he moved, however, a spasm of pain shot through his torso, seemingly originating in his head and spearing all the way through to his feet. Unwittingly, he groaned and almost immediately heard his mom's voice nearby. "Keith? Sweetheart?"
He couldn't answer her. He wanted to, but the sudden rush of molten fire through his limbs was taking his breath away. He didn't even have sufficient energy to scream - not that it would have made him feel any better. His lungs were in flames and he could feel himself burning up - could almost feel the blaze licking around his body, consuming him, inch by inch. Hands touched him - feeling his forehead, stroking his burning face. He could hear the anguish in his mom's voice but couldn't find the voice to reassure her - couldn't even find it within to reassure himself. He was convinced that he was ablaze, couldn't understand why everyone in the room couldn't see it, wondered dimly why they didn't get some water to douse the flames, put out the fire and save him. His entire body was searing with the conflagration within and he yearned for someone to either save him or put him out of his misery. He was not even aware that he was sobbing weakly as the inferno devoured him, inch by inch and eventually, he fell into liquid lava the colour of his own blood and allowed the abyss to claim him.
Shirley looked up at Reuben aghast as Keith once more slipped into oblivion. She had been dozing fitfully beside the bed when she had heard the faint groan and had become instantly alert, leaning over him, waiting for him to reclaim consciousness. But he hadn't even opened his eyes. Instead, he had squeezed them closed even tighter and pressed himself into the bed, his arms wrapped around his body as though in excruciating pain. When she had felt his forehead and cheek, she had been appalled. He was burning up! Haltingly, she had called out to Reuben, who had also fallen asleep and hadn't woken with Keith's initial cry, and on her instructions, he had run into the bathroom to wet a cloth. By the time he brought it back, however, Keith had slipped back once more into a sleep which was like a little death and Shirley was fighting not to show her despair.
Tenderly, she wiped the cool cloth over her son's fevered skin, gazing into his beloved face; still able to see so much of his father in his mobile, delicate features. He was so much like his dad - in so many ways, she reflected, yet he had also inherited her love of family and a streak of mischief which was only outclassed by that of his younger brother. The two made an incorrigible pair - but they did liven things up at the Partridge home. It was different with Laurie. He was different with Laurie. The two were close enough in age to be rivals and friends at the same time. And sometimes it was difficult to tell which aspect of each was winning. But despite their bickering and seemingly almost constant baiting they had a close, loving relationship. They protected each other instinctively against outside forces. When one was threatened, the other immediately went to the rescue; yet they were also capable of ganging up on each other with said outside forces if they thought it would put them one up against the other. She sighed heavily as she thought of her daughter and her other kids, who would still be asleep, completely oblivious to the drama unfolding in Reuben's suite. Reuben would have to be despatched to tell them some lie, give some excuse for their mother's absence from their side and for Keith's non-appearance. They would undoubtedly put two and two together and come up with some wild conclusion but never, in their wildest dreams would they be able to envision the truth of what was happening to their brother. Never would they be able to believe that someone had done this to him - out of spite, out of malice, or simply out of complete irresponsibility, it no longer mattered. All that mattered was getting him through this, whole, complete and with no lingering effects either physically or psychologically. Shirley was no fool. She realised that there was a very good chance that her eldest son would pay mentally for this whole incident despite the fact that he wasn't to blame for any of it. He would carry the responsibility and it would haunt him for many a night. That was a certainty. All she could do was try to limit the effects, try to reassure him that this was the result of a crazy, mixed-up girl's endeavours and not something over which he had any control.
"How's he doing?" Reuben's voice intruded on her contemplation and she glanced up at him, smiling wearily.
"I think he's cooled down a bit," she responded, feeling Keith's brow again with the back of her hand. "Oh, Reuben, I can't imagine what he's going through, what he's going to suffer. If I had that girl here, I'd …"
"Yeah, I know," Reuben interjected feelingly. "I'd like to wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze - slowly. Junkies!" There was total disgust in his voice. "They're a law unto themselves, Shirl.
But why we had to have one on the tour with us and why she targetted Keith … well, I just don't know."
"She was pretty, Reuben."
"Yeah, she was, but …"
"She was pretty and she found Keith attractive. And he is very handsome - I know I shouldn't say that. I am his mother after all, and I'm bound to be a little biased, but let's face it, I'm not the only one to think that."
Reuben smiled at Shirley's words. "Yeah," he agreed. "He is a good lookin' kid, I'll give you that."
"And he has talent," Shirley pointed out. "Talent and good looks always attract people - sometimes the wrong kind of people. " she added, darkly.
"And this time it was definitely the wrong kind of people," Reuben said with a heavy sigh.
Shirley glanced down again at her eldest. The love in her face almost brought the Partridge Family manager to tears again. "But he wasn't to know that," she said, softly. "He had no idea - none of us did. Keith would never even think something like that about someone unless there were signs and none of us saw signs that she was a … 'junkie'."
"He's not stupid, Shirley."
"No, he's not. He's bright and intelligent and if there had been any indication - any indication at all that Joni was an addict, then he would have seen it. I'm not saying he would have stayed away from her. He might be intelligent but sometimes, common sense is not his greatest attribute. But he might have seen it as his mission to save her from herself. He can be very gallant and occasionally quiet heroic, my son," she finished, fondly.
"And sometimes blind to everything except a pretty girl," Reuben pointed out. "Oh, don't get me wrong, Shirley," he temporised. "I know he didn't know anything about the girl's inclinations, but sometimes, when a pretty girl is paying attention to him … "
"He forgets everything else," Shirley finished for him, with a tired smile. "Yes, I know, Reuben. But he would never have let himself get trapped in this situation if he'd known or suspected she was a drug addict. He's far too sensible for that. You do believe that, don't you?"
"Knowing Keith as well as I do, of course I believe that," Reuben assured her hurriedly as the mother instinctively leapt to the defence of her firstborn. He patted her on the shoulder. "Shirl, none of this is his fault - which is something we've been saying pretty much from the start. The only thing we have to do is make him understand that when he gets better."
Their conversation was interrupted at that moment by a small sound from the bed, and both turned as one toward the source.
*****
Keith awoke again to the heat which was trying to devour him from inside out and tried in vain to move away from it, escape the pyre. Almost immediately, he felt the slight relief of coolness against his burning brow, but it was short lived as the heat strove to turn it into steam. He moved restlessly under the sheets, his head tossing to and fro in an effort to escape the all-powerful fire which burned within him - to no avail. It seemed he was destined to continue being tortured by the rising incandescence, and he whimpered softly. "Hot …" he murmured. "… Mom …?"
Shirley paused in the act of wiping her son's face with the cold cloth to feel his forehead as she heard him speak, and frowned. "Hot?" she echoed. "No, honey, your temperature's going down. You're just a little feverish, that's all."
Keith could hear his mother's words, but he didn't understand them. Something about him not being hot? Then what was this searing, blazing furnace in his joints, his muscles, the pit of his stomach? His lungs seemed to struggle for every breath and even when he managed to gasp one in, the pain of it made him regret the action immediately. "Hurts …" he moaned.
Shirley's lips trembled as she watched her son enduring this seemingly relentless agony. She continued laving his face with the cloth in deference to the fire which seemed to be burning inside him. She didn't understand why he complained of being so hot and could only assume that the drug, travelling through his system, was causing his imagined fever. Certainly it was not one of the side effects of withdrawal of which the doctor had forewarned them earlier and his prognosis had been pretty explicit. "Nausea, vomiting, joint and muscle pain - there may even be convulsions as the drug works its way out of his system." Shirley had flinched at his words and what they meant for Keith - unremitting agony for the next few hours and perhaps beyond. The doctor had taken a sample of blood from her son to send to the lab in an effort to ascertain how much heroin he had actually been given and had tried to reassure the anxious and frightened adults that neither dose could have been a full one, otherwise Keith would have already been dead.
"Hurts …" Keith mumbled again as Shirley recalled with a shudder the doctor's words and tried desperately to take heart from them. She cupped her son's ashen cheek in one hand, stroking her thumb tenderly over his skin, trying to comfort him by touch alone.
"Sshhh," she crooned, softly, as his head turned toward her touch, almost as though he knew, on some level, that she was there. He was obviously nowhere near consciousness despite his ramblings. "It's going to be all right, sweetheart, I promise." She bit back a sob as she uttered the words, praying that she was right. She couldn't lose him - not her baby, her son. She loved him so much. He couldn't die. She wouldn't allow it.
An hour later, Keith suffered the convulsion the doctor had predicted. He had been climbing slowly toward full consciousness, moaning almost continuously as the pain increased and eclipsed even the molten lava in his blood. Suddenly it peaked and his body arched into it, his head banging against the headboard with such force that the headboard itself impacted violently with the wall behind it.
Next door, Laurie was awoken with a start by the noise. She glanced a the travel clock on the table next to her bed and was startled to find it was already 9:00am. Scrambling out of bed, she reached for her dressing gown, wondering why she had been allowed to sleep so late and where her mom was. Tracy was still dead to the world in the bed across the small hall. She was just about to leave the room to find the answers to her questions, when she heard a strangled cry from the next room. Her curiosity piqued, she moved over to the wall and, putting her ear next to it, listened intently for any further noise. She was rewarded by yet another cry, the strangulated sound of someone in pain, and - it sounded suspiciously like Keith. But what would her brother be doing in Reuben's room and what in god's name could make him sound like that? Determined to find out, she strode over to the door and opened it - only to find Danny standing outside waiting for her.
"You heard it too, huh" he queried. He was still in his pajamas, his robe belted tightly around his waist. He still looked half asleep but his freckled face was at once inquisitive and troubled. "You know Keith never got back to the room last night?" he offered as an observation. "You don't think … ?"
"I don't know what to think," Laurie told him, firmly. "But we'd better find out what's going on. C'mon."
As one, they headed toward Rueben's suite
Shirley had watched, helplessly and in horror as Keith experienced two more convulsions, each as terrifying as the first. Rueben, who had fallen asleep in the easy chair, came awake with a start as Keith cried out incoherently. He had been dreaming and heard the cry of a wounded animal in terrible pain - then he realised that it was a human sound and nearly fell out of his chair as comprehension dawned and he made a start for the bed before he had truly woken up. Despite nearly tripping over the pale brown rug on the way, he was at Keith's bedside in record time, in time to witness the last convulsion. It was a horrifying sight to behold as the teenager's back arched in a taut bow, his limbs spasming in a violent paroxysm, then, without warning, he flopped back down onto the bed, gasping for breaths which seemed to take an age to travel in and out of his lungs. Shirley had jammed her fist up against her mouth in an effort to prevent herself from screaming, her blue eyes wide with fright. She couldn't speak, was barely breathing herself as she watched her son suffer this latest, shocking attack on his body.
"Oh my god!"
The stunned exclamation originated from the doorway. Shirley swivelled on the bed to stare in dismay at Laurie, who had uttered the words, and Danny, both of whom were staring, in turn, in complete shock at the now motionless figure on the bed.
"Laurie!"
"Mom .. what …?" Her eldest daughter turned fearful eyes on her, silently demanding an explanation, begging for reassurance that what she was seeing wasn't real.
"Keith …" murmured Danny, taking a step forward, unable to drag his eyes away from his older brother. Keith looked dreadful - would have done so even had they not just witnessed him having a convulsion of some kind. His face was ashen, there were dark shadows under his eyes and his lips had turned an unnatural pale colour. He looked almost … "Is he … is he … dead?"
Danny's eyes too were asking the same questions as his sister, and Shirley rose from the bed, moving toward them to take them into her arms. They leaned into her embrace, throwing their arms around her and each other as she lost herself momentarily in their love. Then she released them, stepping back and regarding them sadly. There were tears in her eyes and her face was blotched - it looked like she had been crying a lot.
"Mom?" Laurie's voice was ragged as she glanced over in the direction of the bed, where Reuben was still standing, his gaze riveted on Keith now that Shirley had taken care of the newest problem. "Mom .. what is it? What's happened?"
Shirley sighed inwardly and studied her eldest daughter and middle son carefully, trying to gauge how much to tell them. Laurie was old enough, certainly, to be well informed about drugs and it was no use trying to keep this a secret from her now. She was extremely bright and she had already seen too much anyway. Danny had often been referred to by Reuben as a 35 year old in a midget's body and she had to admit that he often seemed more worldly wise than anyone else in the family, including herself. Glancing back at her firstborn, who now lay still and silent, alarmingly so, she came to a quick decision. She turned back to the other two and put an arm around each, leading them to the large sofa which took up one end of the room. "You'd better sit down, kids," she said, quietly. "I have something to tell you."
He couldn't answer her. He wanted to, but the sudden rush of molten fire through his limbs was taking his breath away. He didn't even have sufficient energy to scream - not that it would have made him feel any better. His lungs were in flames and he could feel himself burning up - could almost feel the blaze licking around his body, consuming him, inch by inch. Hands touched him - feeling his forehead, stroking his burning face. He could hear the anguish in his mom's voice but couldn't find the voice to reassure her - couldn't even find it within to reassure himself. He was convinced that he was ablaze, couldn't understand why everyone in the room couldn't see it, wondered dimly why they didn't get some water to douse the flames, put out the fire and save him. His entire body was searing with the conflagration within and he yearned for someone to either save him or put him out of his misery. He was not even aware that he was sobbing weakly as the inferno devoured him, inch by inch and eventually, he fell into liquid lava the colour of his own blood and allowed the abyss to claim him.
Shirley looked up at Reuben aghast as Keith once more slipped into oblivion. She had been dozing fitfully beside the bed when she had heard the faint groan and had become instantly alert, leaning over him, waiting for him to reclaim consciousness. But he hadn't even opened his eyes. Instead, he had squeezed them closed even tighter and pressed himself into the bed, his arms wrapped around his body as though in excruciating pain. When she had felt his forehead and cheek, she had been appalled. He was burning up! Haltingly, she had called out to Reuben, who had also fallen asleep and hadn't woken with Keith's initial cry, and on her instructions, he had run into the bathroom to wet a cloth. By the time he brought it back, however, Keith had slipped back once more into a sleep which was like a little death and Shirley was fighting not to show her despair.
Tenderly, she wiped the cool cloth over her son's fevered skin, gazing into his beloved face; still able to see so much of his father in his mobile, delicate features. He was so much like his dad - in so many ways, she reflected, yet he had also inherited her love of family and a streak of mischief which was only outclassed by that of his younger brother. The two made an incorrigible pair - but they did liven things up at the Partridge home. It was different with Laurie. He was different with Laurie. The two were close enough in age to be rivals and friends at the same time. And sometimes it was difficult to tell which aspect of each was winning. But despite their bickering and seemingly almost constant baiting they had a close, loving relationship. They protected each other instinctively against outside forces. When one was threatened, the other immediately went to the rescue; yet they were also capable of ganging up on each other with said outside forces if they thought it would put them one up against the other. She sighed heavily as she thought of her daughter and her other kids, who would still be asleep, completely oblivious to the drama unfolding in Reuben's suite. Reuben would have to be despatched to tell them some lie, give some excuse for their mother's absence from their side and for Keith's non-appearance. They would undoubtedly put two and two together and come up with some wild conclusion but never, in their wildest dreams would they be able to envision the truth of what was happening to their brother. Never would they be able to believe that someone had done this to him - out of spite, out of malice, or simply out of complete irresponsibility, it no longer mattered. All that mattered was getting him through this, whole, complete and with no lingering effects either physically or psychologically. Shirley was no fool. She realised that there was a very good chance that her eldest son would pay mentally for this whole incident despite the fact that he wasn't to blame for any of it. He would carry the responsibility and it would haunt him for many a night. That was a certainty. All she could do was try to limit the effects, try to reassure him that this was the result of a crazy, mixed-up girl's endeavours and not something over which he had any control.
"How's he doing?" Reuben's voice intruded on her contemplation and she glanced up at him, smiling wearily.
"I think he's cooled down a bit," she responded, feeling Keith's brow again with the back of her hand. "Oh, Reuben, I can't imagine what he's going through, what he's going to suffer. If I had that girl here, I'd …"
"Yeah, I know," Reuben interjected feelingly. "I'd like to wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze - slowly. Junkies!" There was total disgust in his voice. "They're a law unto themselves, Shirl.
But why we had to have one on the tour with us and why she targetted Keith … well, I just don't know."
"She was pretty, Reuben."
"Yeah, she was, but …"
"She was pretty and she found Keith attractive. And he is very handsome - I know I shouldn't say that. I am his mother after all, and I'm bound to be a little biased, but let's face it, I'm not the only one to think that."
Reuben smiled at Shirley's words. "Yeah," he agreed. "He is a good lookin' kid, I'll give you that."
"And he has talent," Shirley pointed out. "Talent and good looks always attract people - sometimes the wrong kind of people. " she added, darkly.
"And this time it was definitely the wrong kind of people," Reuben said with a heavy sigh.
Shirley glanced down again at her eldest. The love in her face almost brought the Partridge Family manager to tears again. "But he wasn't to know that," she said, softly. "He had no idea - none of us did. Keith would never even think something like that about someone unless there were signs and none of us saw signs that she was a … 'junkie'."
"He's not stupid, Shirley."
"No, he's not. He's bright and intelligent and if there had been any indication - any indication at all that Joni was an addict, then he would have seen it. I'm not saying he would have stayed away from her. He might be intelligent but sometimes, common sense is not his greatest attribute. But he might have seen it as his mission to save her from herself. He can be very gallant and occasionally quiet heroic, my son," she finished, fondly.
"And sometimes blind to everything except a pretty girl," Reuben pointed out. "Oh, don't get me wrong, Shirley," he temporised. "I know he didn't know anything about the girl's inclinations, but sometimes, when a pretty girl is paying attention to him … "
"He forgets everything else," Shirley finished for him, with a tired smile. "Yes, I know, Reuben. But he would never have let himself get trapped in this situation if he'd known or suspected she was a drug addict. He's far too sensible for that. You do believe that, don't you?"
"Knowing Keith as well as I do, of course I believe that," Reuben assured her hurriedly as the mother instinctively leapt to the defence of her firstborn. He patted her on the shoulder. "Shirl, none of this is his fault - which is something we've been saying pretty much from the start. The only thing we have to do is make him understand that when he gets better."
Their conversation was interrupted at that moment by a small sound from the bed, and both turned as one toward the source.
*****
Keith awoke again to the heat which was trying to devour him from inside out and tried in vain to move away from it, escape the pyre. Almost immediately, he felt the slight relief of coolness against his burning brow, but it was short lived as the heat strove to turn it into steam. He moved restlessly under the sheets, his head tossing to and fro in an effort to escape the all-powerful fire which burned within him - to no avail. It seemed he was destined to continue being tortured by the rising incandescence, and he whimpered softly. "Hot …" he murmured. "… Mom …?"
Shirley paused in the act of wiping her son's face with the cold cloth to feel his forehead as she heard him speak, and frowned. "Hot?" she echoed. "No, honey, your temperature's going down. You're just a little feverish, that's all."
Keith could hear his mother's words, but he didn't understand them. Something about him not being hot? Then what was this searing, blazing furnace in his joints, his muscles, the pit of his stomach? His lungs seemed to struggle for every breath and even when he managed to gasp one in, the pain of it made him regret the action immediately. "Hurts …" he moaned.
Shirley's lips trembled as she watched her son enduring this seemingly relentless agony. She continued laving his face with the cloth in deference to the fire which seemed to be burning inside him. She didn't understand why he complained of being so hot and could only assume that the drug, travelling through his system, was causing his imagined fever. Certainly it was not one of the side effects of withdrawal of which the doctor had forewarned them earlier and his prognosis had been pretty explicit. "Nausea, vomiting, joint and muscle pain - there may even be convulsions as the drug works its way out of his system." Shirley had flinched at his words and what they meant for Keith - unremitting agony for the next few hours and perhaps beyond. The doctor had taken a sample of blood from her son to send to the lab in an effort to ascertain how much heroin he had actually been given and had tried to reassure the anxious and frightened adults that neither dose could have been a full one, otherwise Keith would have already been dead.
"Hurts …" Keith mumbled again as Shirley recalled with a shudder the doctor's words and tried desperately to take heart from them. She cupped her son's ashen cheek in one hand, stroking her thumb tenderly over his skin, trying to comfort him by touch alone.
"Sshhh," she crooned, softly, as his head turned toward her touch, almost as though he knew, on some level, that she was there. He was obviously nowhere near consciousness despite his ramblings. "It's going to be all right, sweetheart, I promise." She bit back a sob as she uttered the words, praying that she was right. She couldn't lose him - not her baby, her son. She loved him so much. He couldn't die. She wouldn't allow it.
An hour later, Keith suffered the convulsion the doctor had predicted. He had been climbing slowly toward full consciousness, moaning almost continuously as the pain increased and eclipsed even the molten lava in his blood. Suddenly it peaked and his body arched into it, his head banging against the headboard with such force that the headboard itself impacted violently with the wall behind it.
Next door, Laurie was awoken with a start by the noise. She glanced a the travel clock on the table next to her bed and was startled to find it was already 9:00am. Scrambling out of bed, she reached for her dressing gown, wondering why she had been allowed to sleep so late and where her mom was. Tracy was still dead to the world in the bed across the small hall. She was just about to leave the room to find the answers to her questions, when she heard a strangled cry from the next room. Her curiosity piqued, she moved over to the wall and, putting her ear next to it, listened intently for any further noise. She was rewarded by yet another cry, the strangulated sound of someone in pain, and - it sounded suspiciously like Keith. But what would her brother be doing in Reuben's room and what in god's name could make him sound like that? Determined to find out, she strode over to the door and opened it - only to find Danny standing outside waiting for her.
"You heard it too, huh" he queried. He was still in his pajamas, his robe belted tightly around his waist. He still looked half asleep but his freckled face was at once inquisitive and troubled. "You know Keith never got back to the room last night?" he offered as an observation. "You don't think … ?"
"I don't know what to think," Laurie told him, firmly. "But we'd better find out what's going on. C'mon."
As one, they headed toward Rueben's suite
Shirley had watched, helplessly and in horror as Keith experienced two more convulsions, each as terrifying as the first. Rueben, who had fallen asleep in the easy chair, came awake with a start as Keith cried out incoherently. He had been dreaming and heard the cry of a wounded animal in terrible pain - then he realised that it was a human sound and nearly fell out of his chair as comprehension dawned and he made a start for the bed before he had truly woken up. Despite nearly tripping over the pale brown rug on the way, he was at Keith's bedside in record time, in time to witness the last convulsion. It was a horrifying sight to behold as the teenager's back arched in a taut bow, his limbs spasming in a violent paroxysm, then, without warning, he flopped back down onto the bed, gasping for breaths which seemed to take an age to travel in and out of his lungs. Shirley had jammed her fist up against her mouth in an effort to prevent herself from screaming, her blue eyes wide with fright. She couldn't speak, was barely breathing herself as she watched her son suffer this latest, shocking attack on his body.
"Oh my god!"
The stunned exclamation originated from the doorway. Shirley swivelled on the bed to stare in dismay at Laurie, who had uttered the words, and Danny, both of whom were staring, in turn, in complete shock at the now motionless figure on the bed.
"Laurie!"
"Mom .. what …?" Her eldest daughter turned fearful eyes on her, silently demanding an explanation, begging for reassurance that what she was seeing wasn't real.
"Keith …" murmured Danny, taking a step forward, unable to drag his eyes away from his older brother. Keith looked dreadful - would have done so even had they not just witnessed him having a convulsion of some kind. His face was ashen, there were dark shadows under his eyes and his lips had turned an unnatural pale colour. He looked almost … "Is he … is he … dead?"
Danny's eyes too were asking the same questions as his sister, and Shirley rose from the bed, moving toward them to take them into her arms. They leaned into her embrace, throwing their arms around her and each other as she lost herself momentarily in their love. Then she released them, stepping back and regarding them sadly. There were tears in her eyes and her face was blotched - it looked like she had been crying a lot.
"Mom?" Laurie's voice was ragged as she glanced over in the direction of the bed, where Reuben was still standing, his gaze riveted on Keith now that Shirley had taken care of the newest problem. "Mom .. what is it? What's happened?"
Shirley sighed inwardly and studied her eldest daughter and middle son carefully, trying to gauge how much to tell them. Laurie was old enough, certainly, to be well informed about drugs and it was no use trying to keep this a secret from her now. She was extremely bright and she had already seen too much anyway. Danny had often been referred to by Reuben as a 35 year old in a midget's body and she had to admit that he often seemed more worldly wise than anyone else in the family, including herself. Glancing back at her firstborn, who now lay still and silent, alarmingly so, she came to a quick decision. She turned back to the other two and put an arm around each, leading them to the large sofa which took up one end of the room. "You'd better sit down, kids," she said, quietly. "I have something to tell you."