The Photographer by Barbara Steiner

his ear, “It’s all right. Things will get better.”
    â€œIf I look sad will you hug me?” Robert put on a long face.
    â€œI only hug total strangers.” Megan was amazed at her sense of abandon. But everyone seemed safe tonight.
    They found two chairs near the big picture window and watched the crowd while they sipped their drinks and rested. Suddenly Megan nearly doubled over with a stab of fear. A cloud of pure evil filled her nostrils, cloying, clogging her mind and pores, her body with its nauseous smell. She choked on her drink. “Robert!” She grabbed his arm. “Bunny! Something has happened to Bunny.”
    â€œWhat—how do you know, Megan?”
    â€œNever mind. I just know it.” How could Megan explain that she had seen Bunny fall from the lamppost? The picture flashed through her mind so quickly she had trouble believing it herself. It was the same kind of knowledge she’d had when Cynthia fainted at the dance, only this time the clear picture was mixed with naked fear.
    On the mall they heard the siren pierce the air. “Let’s go, Robert. We have to hurry.”
    â€œThere’s no way we can hurry through this crowd, Megan.” Robert tried to follow Megan, who was pushing people aside frantically.
    The sheer number of people held them to a frustrating, creeping pace. Megan tried not to get angry and start screaming. That was what she wanted to do. By the time they reached the spot where they’d left Bunny and Roxie the girls were both gone.
    A wizard filled them in on the details. “Suddenly she just fell, the silver fairy. Such a beautiful girl. The crowd caught her, so she wasn’t hurt. She was unconscious, though. Her friend went with her to the hospital.”
    â€œI wonder where Derrick is,” said Robert as they headed for the car.
    â€œForget Derrick. He won’t care.” Megan ran as fast as her floppy shoes would allow.
    Starting their evening from the hospital, they’d parked north of the mall, so now it was easier to get through the traffic jams to go back. Megan clutched the door until her hand ached, watching Robert inch his way to Broadway and turn right. They parked as close to the hospital as they could get. Megan jumped from the car and ran, not worrying if Robert was behind her, not worrying about what people thought of a clown racing toward the emergency entrance.
    Bunny had been checked in through emergency, but her parents, living close to the hospital, had called their own doctor and were getting Bunny a room when Robert and Megan arrived.
    â€œI almost didn’t let her go out tonight. She hasn’t felt well since before Homecoming. But the lovely costume.… And Roxie begged.” Mrs. Browne looked as pale as Bunny had earlier, now that Megan thought back.
    Roxie sat sobbing in a vinyl chair, her costume an incongruity with the sterile, Naugahyde waiting room. “Bunny said she didn’t feel good three times. But I insisted. I don’t feel so good myself, but I didn’t want to miss the celebration. And we had these costumes.” Roxie took a breath. “Will someone take me home?”
    There was nothing Megan and Robert could do, so they took Roxie home. Then Robert headed for Megan’s.
    â€œWill you come in, Robert?” Megan invited. “I need some company. My folks went to a party.”
    Halfheartedly, they put a match to the fireplace, where a fire had been laid. The house seemed unusually cold to Megan. She’d gotten chilled in the late October air, despite long underwear and a sweater under her clown suit. Sitting on the stone ledge in front of the crackling fire, she cupped her hands around a steaming cup of cocoa. But she couldn’t stop shivering.
    Robert sat beside her and circled her shoulders with a warm hug.
    â€œWhat’s going on, Robert? Have we got some kind of mysterious epidemic at Boulder High?”
    â€œTwo people sick? I