A/N: I apologize for taking so long. The best excuse I can give is that I was caught up writing a critical analysis of "Utopia." If anyone has ever read that, you understand. To the person who complained because I take so long to update, I'm *trying* to speed it up. It takes time for me to write something that I think is good. I *THINK* this is good. I need reviews to tell me whether or not that is true, and why or why not.



"Good morning, good morning, good morning! It's time to rise 'n shine!" Chae was singing and skipping around the breakfast table at 9:30 on Saturday morning. The seven-year old had just finished watching an hour of her favorite cartoons, and consequently, she was wound up.

"...Good morning, good morning, good morning! I hope you're feelin' fine!" After finishing the silly song, she plopped into a chair next to Joy, titled her head to the side, and grinned widely. "What are we doin' today, Joy-joy?"

"What would you like to do?" Joy answered Chae's question with a question in hopes that the little girl had already come up with her own idea. She knew kids well enough to know that they were usually full of ideas and loved to make plans.

"We could all go to the library," Jyll suggested, out of the blue.

Jyll was sitting right across from Joy, and Joy had to hold back the urge to do something incredibly immature like stick her tongue out at her sister or make a horrible face or say, "I wasn't asking you," which was precisely what she would have said, had there not been two little kids watching her. Joy and Jyll had never really settled their conflict on Friday night. Against their mother's advice never to go to bed angry, they had done just that.

"What would we do there?" It was Nayen who asked the question that had been on the tip of Joy's tongue as well. "Get books?"

"You could do that," Jyll said. "But I was thinking that we could listen to this lady who reads books to the kids. She does all the characters' voices and everything. Last week, I saw a sign posted announcing she would give three readings today, one at 10:00, one at 11:00, and one at 1:00."

Even Joy had to admit that wasn't such a bad idea. Chae and Nayen looked interested, Claudia and Janine both nodded in approval.

"But I'm going to need to stay home today." Janine hardly looked awake as she said this. She was seated the table, resting her head in her hands and massaging her left temple. Her eyes closed as she spoke. "I'm sorry, girls, but I just can't go. I have an awful headache this morning."

Janine was supposed to be helping Claudia wash the breakfast dishes, but she had taken a moment to sit down. Her head was pounding so much that she could barely think straight.

"Sure, mom," Joy studied Janine's face. Did she look at little pale? Was she alright?

"You could use some rest," Jyll added.

"She sure could," Claudia confirmed, having noticed that her sister looked particularly worn down upon their arrival yesterday. Then she had just chalked it up to a full day at work combined with getting ready for a ton of houseguests. Now there seemed to be something more to Janine's sudden fatigue.

Then again, Claudia could hardly consider herself an expert on her sister. She did know that Janine commuted from Stoneybrook to New Haven on a daily basis. Surely that had to take its toll. Still, Janine had been making that commute for more than two years now. There had to be something else wrong.

"I think I'll stay home to visit with your mom," Claudia told them. James had a trial in Stamford that morning, and he had left before anyone else in the house had woken up. Claudia did not think Janine looked like she should be left home alone.

Since they were already dressed and ready for the day, the four girls decided to catch the 10:00 AM reading. The Yamakawas lived close enough to the library for them to walk. In order to make it on time, they left in a hurry. Before they went out of the door, Joy felt compelled to turn around and say, "Mom, you're okay, aren't you?"

"I'm fine, hon."

Joy nodded and blew her a kiss as they left.

It happened at precisely 10:03 AM. Claudia had looked at the clock on the VCR when she heard the thud from upstairs. She only hesitated an instant before she dropped the paperback she'd been reading in the living room, an old Nancy Drew novel that she'd given to Joy along with the rest of her collection. Her heart pounding, she raced up the stairs and into the master bedroom.

Later she would think to herself that God had surely placed the idea in Jyll's head for the girls to go to the library for storytime. Later she would, in horror, wonder what she would have done if the girls had been at home. Later she would remember that nothing was ever a coincidence because coincidence did not exist.

Claudia nearly fainted herself when she saw Janine sprawled out on the floor. Janine had told Claudia that she was tired and needed to go back for to bed for awhile. It was apparent that she had been about to do just that before she had collapsed.

Breathing heavily, Claudia got down beside her. "Janine, can you hear me? Janine?!"

Janine drew in a sharp breath, and began shaking violently. Claudia withdrew, helpless, as she witnessed Janine's seizure. It lasted a few seconds, and then Janine was still again. In those seconds, Claudia managed to grab the phone and dial 911. The operator was on the line with her by the time Janine stopped.

"My sister just collapsed and she's unconscious," Claudia surprised herself by sounding calm, though inwardly she was screaming for help as loudly as she could. "She just h-had a seizure of some sort. We're in her room. I'm alone with her and..."

She could barely stop talking long enough to allow the operator to ask for the address and tell her that an ambulance was coming. "I need you to stay on the line," the man said.

Claudia hadn't taken her eyes off Janine, who was still, but her breathing was loud and deliberate. She was alive, that was certain. Oh, God

"Does she have a pulse? Is she breathing?" he asked.

"She's breathing." Claudia grabbed Janine's wrist, unsure if breathing neccessary ensured that Janine had a pulse. At the moment, she wasn't sure of anything. She was just plain scared out of her wits. She did remember enough to take her sister's wrist to determine if she had a pulse. "And she has a pulse."

"Good. You need to keep her warm until we get there. Find a blanket to cover her with. Slippers, if she has any. Can you get these things and keep her in your sight?"

Claudia choked out a yes, and retrieved these things while clinging to the phone and keeping her eyes glued on Janine, who thankfully, wasn't having any more seizures. Although, at the time, Claudia couldn't decide which was worse, Janine lying there motionless or experiencing frightening convulsions.

As she grabbed fuzzy slippers and the blanket from the bed, Claudia felt like her thirteen-year-old self when she'd witnessed Mimi's stroke. But this was Janine, not Mimi. And what had happened? What on earth had just happened to Janine? Claudia barely had time to think about it because the man on the other end of the line kept talking to her and giving her instructions that she numbly followed until the paramedics arrived.

The doorbell rang, and she was forced to let Janine out of her sight to let them in. She sprinted downstairs, and opened the door, relieved to see a team of men with a stretcher. She was ready to fall into the arms of one of them and cry, but right now she had to suppress the urge to fall apart. She had to hold herself together until the paramedics had Janine.

The next few minutes were a blur as the attendants put Janine on the stretcher and into the ambulance. All Claudia knew was that they checked Janine's vital signs and determined nothing other than the fact that she was still breathing and had a pulse, confirming what Claudia had told them. "Does she have a history of epilepsy?" someone asked.

"N-no, no she doesn't," Claudia stammered a bit, having to remind herself what epilepsy was. She only remembered because she had once babysat for a child with epilepsy, and she knew that they tended to have seizures.

"Try to stay calm," one of the attendants, a woman, put a hand on Claudia's shoulder. It took a steady hand to make Claudia realize that she was shaking. She wiped away the tears that were determined to fall at that moment, and then crossed her arms across her body, holding herself tightly to keep from shaking. "Can you ride with us to the hospital?"

"Okay," Claudia replied in a small voice. She was reminded of how Janine had ridden to the hospital with Mimi. What had Janine been feeling then? Claudia had waited at home for her parents to return. It had been the longest wait of her life.

Claudia ran back in the house to retrieve her purse and the keys to the house. She was thinking clearly enough now to lock the door behind her. She then sprinted back to the ambulance, where Janine had already been loaded into the back.

"Anyone you need to call?" the same woman asked Claudia this after she was seated in the front seat of the ambulance. Claudia, in her moment of clarity, hadn't thought of this. Now that she did, she hunched over and covered her face in agony as they pulled out of the driveway.

"The girls," she moaned. Then she remembered the rest. "And James. Our parents. Oh, lord."