Setting down her saxophone, Sue Ellen raced into the audience to where Carla and Mr. Ratburn were glaring at each other. The music ceased and the club fell silent, except for the patrons' curious murmurings.

Sue Ellen picked up the ring from the floor and held it up to Carla. "Put it back on!" she demanded, but Carla only stared blankly at her.

Nigel plucked the ring out of Sue Ellen's fingers. "Stay out of this," he said firmly.

"Let's go home," said Carla as she took the distraught girl by the hand.

Her eyes filling with tears, Sue Ellen took no thought about her saxophone as Carla led her out of the club and toward the parking garage.

"You have to marry Nigel!" she protested. "You just have to!"

"I won't marry a man who treats his own sister that way," said Carla angrily. "Especially when she's pregnant."

Tears rolled down Sue Ellen's face. Carla made no attempt to dry them.

----

"How's your head today?" Mrs. Read asked Arthur as he sat at the breakfast table, wolfing down his dry cereal.

"It doesn't hurt or anything," Arthur replied, "but I still feel a little dizzy sometimes. And I...I don't know how to describe it, but...I feel like I'm looking at things differently."

"A new perspective on life can be a helpful thing," said Mr. Read, who was preparing a roast for Sunday dinner.

"I don't think that's what he means," said Mrs. Read. "Sometimes when I get a headache, it's like the world around me changes."

"That's it, Mom," said Arthur with his mouth full of cereal. "That's what I'm talking about."

"Now that your concert's over," his mother said, "I think you should rest today, like the doctor recommended."

"What about church?" asked Arthur.

"You always sleep in church anyway," said his father, who was adjusting the dials on the oven.

"I wouldn't if something interesting would happen," Arthur retorted.

"Yeah, it's booooring," complained D.W., who was sitting next to Arthur, playing with a piece of toast.

Arthur and D.W. started to fantasize about sitting next to their parents in an utterly boring church meeting. Their eyelids were growing heavy as Reverend Fulsome delivered a trite, uninspired sermon from the pulpit.

"It's a simple message, and it comes from the heart," spoke the reverend. "Believe in yourself, for that's the place to start."

As D.W. started to drift off to sleep, she heard a sweet heavenly voice calling to her. She opened her eyes, looked up, and gasped in wonder at the sight. An angelic Mary Moo Cow was hovering above her, its little wings flapping furiously.

"Mary Moo Cow?" cried D.W., an ecstatic smile on her face. "Are you my guardian angel?"

"Yes, I am," gushed the Mary Moo Cow angel. "It's just like you've always dreamed it."

The enraptured D.W. raised her hand toward the angel, who grasped it and lifted her up into the air. Soon the two were flying about the chapel, to the wonder of the other parishioners.

Arthur, who had watched the entire affair, started to feel jealous. "Where's my guardian angel?" he asked grumpily.

Looking up, he saw a shining white figure descending from the rafters, its expansive wings flapping slowly. He held his breath, anxious to know whose face was attached to the celestial visitor.

The angel floated downward until it alighted on Arthur's knees. It looked like Sue Ellen...

"Whoa!" Arthur shook his head aggressively.

"What's wrong, Arthur?" D.W. asked him.

Arthur sighed. "Even my fantasy sequences are getting weirder. Maybe I should see a doctor again."

"There's not much else the doctor can do for you," said Mr. Read, "except give you a CAT scan."

Arthur slipped into another fantasy in which he was lying, shirtless, on a medical table. Sue Ellen, dressed in a nurse's uniform, was examining every part of his head through a magnifying glass. "No contusions here," she muttered. "None here, either." She set down the magnifying glass. "Congratulations, Arthur. You've got a perfect gopher-shaped head."

Arthur slapped himself on the cheek to end the fantasy. "That was weird," he said aloud.

"Maybe you just need a day's worth of rest," Mrs. Read suggested.

"The next time you have a weird fantasy, can I slap you?" asked D.W.

The doorbell rang, "I'll get it," said Mr. Read as he raced out of the kitchen, still wearing his chef's hat and gloves.

He opened the door, and Sue Ellen greeted him. "Is Arthur home?"

"Arthur, Sue Ellen's here," Mr. Read called to the kitchen.

Arthur jumped to his feet. "She's come for her harp...er, saxophone," he said, hurrying to the front door.

To his surprise, Sue Ellen looked quite miserable, as if she had cried herself to sleep, then cried herself awake again.

"It's right here," said Arthur, gesturing toward the instrument case which he had taken home from the club and placed next to the phone.

"I'll get it later," said Sue Ellen weakly. "Can we talk?"

"Uh...sure." Arthur turned and headed for the living room.

"In your room, Arthur."

A little surprised, Arthur led Sue Ellen up the stairway and into his bedroom. They sat down on his bed together.

The girl spoke dejectedly. "I didn't know who else I could talk to. You've always been so nice to me."

"What's the problem?" asked Arthur in a semi-oblivious tone of voice.

"You remember when I was mad at Nigel for talking my parents into leaving me here," Sue Ellen began. "I was wrong about him. He's a good man. He's perfect for Carla. But now she's throwing away her only chance for happiness, just because Nigel had a fight with his sister."

Arthur's tone became more somber. "Yeah, I remember all that."

"I tried talking to Carla, but it's no use. She won't go back to him."

"Is there anything I can do?" asked Arthur helpfully.

"Just listen to me." Sue Ellen appeared to be on the brink of tears.

"I've got a shoulder you can cry on," said Arthur.

Sue Ellen wrapped her arms around Arthur's neck, put her face on his shoulder, and started to sob. Arthur's face was almost completely obscured by her hair puff.

"I can't see a thing," said Arthur in a muffled voice, "and there's a hair in my mouth."

"I'm sorry," said Sue Ellen between sobs.

"No, I'm enjoying it."

Sue Ellen sobbed for another half minute or so, and then Arthur happened upon an idea. "You know," he said, his voice still muffled by the hair in front of his face, "we could try to make peace between Mr. Ratburn and his sister."

"That would be impossible," said Sue Ellen, removing her face from Arthur's shoulder. "Even for my dad."

"Impossible? Why?"

The girl pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her tears. "I don't trust Nigel's sister, Arthur. I've got a bad feeling about her."

"A bad feeling?" Arthur repeated, curious.

"Carla thinks Nigel should help her because she's broke and pregnant. But what if she's only trying to take advantage of her family? What if all this has happened before?"

"I hadn't thought of that."

"But Carla doesn't understand that. She says that in Costa Rica, family members stick up for each other, no matter what."

"Is that true?" asked Arthur. "You lived there, right?"

"I don't know. I was really young then. Like, seven."

"I can try talking to Carla," Arthur offered. "I don't know what good I'll be. I'm out of my league when it comes to grownups."

Sue Ellen smiled. "You're such a nice boy, Arthur."

"Thanks." Arthur started to smile as well. "You're nice too."

"Is something wrong?"

Arthur, taken aback by the question, looked at Sue Ellen oddly.

"You usually get nervous when I talk to you like this," she added.

"Oh, yeah." Arthur himself wondered why he was taking Sue Ellen's sweet talk so easily. "Must've been the fall from the tree. I've been feeling weird since then."

"Or maybe it's something else." Sue Ellen's face started to light up. "Something you don't want to admit."

"Huh?"

Without warning, Sue Ellen leaned over and kissed Arthur on the cheek. As she withdrew her face, the boy rubbed his cheek and smiled bashfully.

"That didn't scare you?" she asked.

"Uh...no, it didn't." Arthur looked slightly confused. "But it should have. I don't get it."

Then the emboldened Sue Ellen grabbed Arthur firmly by the shoulders, pulled him forward, and kissed him squarely on the lips.

They remained liplocked for about ten seconds. Arthur's expression was a mixture of confusion and enjoyment.

Finally she released him. "How about that? Did that scare you?"

"Your lips are fuzzy," said the dazed-looking Arthur. "Other than that, no."

Sue Ellen's courage mounted. "I lied to you about what I wrote in my diary. It wasn't a silly fantasy. I really do love you, Arthur."

Arthur opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He opened it again, but there was no sound. "You look like a fish," Sue Ellen told him, smiling.

It was clear to Arthur that conversation was futile. He put his hands forward and pulled Sue Ellen toward him until their lips touched.

They kissed for several seconds, and then Arthur heard a familiar gasp of surprise coming from the doorway. He yanked himself out of Sue Ellen's arms. "D.W.!" he cried in horror and outrage.

He barely caught a glimpse of his little sister, who scurried down the stairway shouting, "Mom! Dad! Kate! Pal!"

Sue Ellen sighed. "So much for keeping this a secret." Then she kissed Arthur again.

(To be continued...)