it took only fifteen
minutes, and Jacob drove faster than I did. Eighteen minutes. I picked up the phone and dialed.


It rang and rang. Maybe Billy was asleep. Maybe I'd dialed wrong. I tried again.



On the eighth ring, just as I was about to hang up, Billy answered.
"Hello?" he asked. His voice was wary, like he was expecting bad news.
"Billy, it's me, Bella?did Jake make it home yet? He left here about twenty minutes ago.
"
"He's here," Billy said tonelessly.
"He was supposed to call me." I was a little irritated. "He was getting sick when he left, and I was


worried.
"


"He was? too sick to call. He's not feeling well right now." Billy sounded distant. I realized he must want
to be with Jacob.
"Let me know if you need any help," I offered. "I could come down." I thought of Billy, stuck in his chair,


and Jake fending for himself?
"No, no," Billy said quickly. "We're fine. Stay at your place.
"
The way he said it was almost rude.
"Okay," I agreed.
"Bye, Bella.
"
The line disconnected.
"Bye," I muttered.
Well, at least he'd made it home. Oddly, I didn't feel less worried. I trudged up the stairs, fretting. Maybe


I would go down before work tomorrow to check on him. I could take soup?we had to have a can of


Campbell's around here somewhere.
I realized all such plans were canceled when I woke up early?my clock said four thirty?and sprinted to
the bathroom. Charlie found me there a half hour later, lying on the floor, my cheek pressed against the
cold edge of the bathtub.


He looked at me for a long moment.


"Stomach flu," he finally said.


"Yes," I moaned.


"You need something?" he asked.


"Call the Newtons for me, please," I instructed hoarsely. "Tell them I have what Mike has, and that 
I


can't make it in today. Tell them I'm sorry.
"
"Sure, no problem," Charlie assured me.
I spent the rest of the day on the bathroom floor, sleeping for a few hours with my head on a crumpled


up towel. Charlie claimed that he had to work, but I suspected that he just wanted access to a bathroom.


He left a glass of water on the floor beside me to keep me hydrated.
It woke me up when he came back home. I could see that it was dark in my room?after nightfall. He
clumped up the stairs to check on me.



"Still alive?
"
"Sort of," I said.
"Do you want anything?
"
"No, thanks.
"
He hesitated, clearly out of his element. "Okay, then," he said, and then he went back down to the


kitchen.


I heard the phone ring a few minutes later. Charlie spoke to someone in a low voice for a moment, and
then hung up.
"Mike feels better," he called up to me.
Well, that was encouraging. He'd only gotten sick eight hours or so before me. Eight more hours. The


thought made my stomach turn, and I pulled myself up to lean over the toilet.
I fell asleep on the towel again, but when I woke up I was in my bed and it was light outside my window.


I didn't remember moving; Charlie must have carried me to my room?he'd also put the glass of water on
my bedside table. I felt parched. I chugged it down, though it tasted funny from sitting stagnant all night.
I got up slowly, trying not to trigger the nausea again. I was weak, and my mouth tasted horrible, but my


stomach felt fine. I looked at my clock.
My twenty-four hours were up.
I didn't push it, eating nothing but saltine crackers for breakfast. Charlie looked relieved to see me


recovered.


As soon as I was sure that I wasn't going to have to spend the day on the bathroom floor again, I called


Jacob.


Jacob was the one who answered, but when I heard his greeting I knew he wasn't over it.


"Hello?" His voice was broken, cracking.


"Oh, Jake," I groaned sympathetically. "You sound horrible.
"


"I feel horrible," he whispered.


"I'm so sorry I made you go out with me. This sucks.
"


"I'm glad I went." His voice was still a whisper. "Don't blame yourself. This isn't your fault.
"


"You'll get better soon," I promised. "I woke up this morning, and I was fine.
"


"You were sick?" he asked dully.


"Yes, I got it, too. But I'm fine now.
"


"That's good." His voice was dead.


"So you'll probably be better in a few hours," I encouraged.



I could barely hear his answer. "I don't think I have the same thing you did.
"
"Don't you have the stomach flu?" I asked, confused.
"No. This is something else.
"
"What's wrong with you?
"
"Everything," he whispered. "Every part of me hurts.
"
The pain in his voice was nearly tangible.
"What can I do, Jake? What can I bring you?
"
"Nothing. You can't come here." He was abrupt. It reminded me of Billy the other night.
"I've already been exposed to whatever you have," I pointed out.
He ignored me. "I'll call you when I can. I'll let you know when you can come down again.
"
"Jacob?
"
"I've got to go," he said with sudden urgency.
"Call me when you feel better.
"
"Right," he agreed, and his voice had a strange, bitter edge.
He was silent for a moment. I was waiting for him to say goodbye, but he waited too.
"I'll see you soon," I finally said. "Wait for me to call," he said again. "Okay? Bye, Jacob.
"
"Bella," he whispered my name, and then hung up the phone.


10. THE MEADOW 
JACOB DIDN'T CALL. 

The first time I called, Billy answered and told me that Jacob was still in bed. I got nosy, checking to 
make sure that Billy had taken him to a doctor. Billy said he had, but, for some reason I couldn't nail 
down, I didn't really believe him. I called again, several times a day, for the next two days, but no one 
was ever there. 

Saturday, I decided to go see him, invitation be damned. But the little red house was empty. This 
frightened me?was Jacob so sick that he'd needed to go to the hospital? I stopped by the hospital on 
the way back home, but the nurse at the front desk told me neither Jacob or Billy had been in. 

I made Charlie call Harry Clearwater as soon as he got home from work. I waited, anxious, while 
Charlie chatted with his old friend; the conversation seemed to go on forever without Jacob even being 
mentioned. It seemed that Harry had been in the hospital . . some kind of tests for his heart. Charlie's 
forehead got all pinched together, but Harry joked with him, blowing it off, until Charlie was laughing 
again. Only then did Charlie ask about Jacob, and now his side of the conversation didn't give me much 


to work with, just a lot of hmms and yeahs. I drummed my fingers against the counter beside him until he 
put a hand over mine to stop me. 

Finally, Charlie hung up the phone and turned to me. 

"Harry says there's been some trouble with the phone lines, and that's why you haven't been able to get 
through. Billy took Jake to the doc down there, and it looks like he has mono. He's real tired, and Billy 
said no visitors," he reported. 

"No visitors?" I demanded in disbelief. 

Charlie raised one eyebrow. "Now don't you go making a pest of yourself, Bells. Billy knows what's best 
for Jake. He'll be up and around soon enough. Be patient." 

I didn't push it. Charlie was too worried about Harry. That was clearly the more important issue?it 
wouldn't be right to bug him with my lesser concerns. Instead, I went straight upstairs and turned on my 
computer. I found a medical site online and typed "mononucleosis" into the search box. 

All I knew about mono was that you were supposed to get it from kissing, which was clearly not the case 
with Jake. I read through the symptoms quickly?the fever he definitely had, but what about the rest of 
it? No horrible sore throat, no exhaustion, no headaches, at least not before he'd gone home from the 
movie; he'd said he felt "fit as a fiddle." Did it really come on so fast? The article made it sound like the 
sore stuff showed up first. 

I glared at the computer screen and wondered why, exactly, I was doing this. Why did I feel so? so 
suspicious, like I didn't believe Billy's story? Why would Billy lie to Harry? 

I was being silly, probably. I was just worried, and, to be honest, I was afraid of not being allowed to see 
Jacob?that made me nervous. 

I skimmed through the rest of the article, looking for more information. I stopped when I got to the part 
about how mono could last more than a month. 

A month? My mouth fell open. 

But Billy couldn't enforce the no-visitors thing that long. Of course not. Jake would go crazy stuck in bed 
that long without anyone to talk to. 

What was Billy afraid of, anyway? The article said that a person with mono needed to avoid physical 
activity, but there was nothing about visitors. The disease wasn't very infectious. 

I'd give Billy a week, I decided, before I got pushy. A week was generous. 

A week was long. By Wednesday, I was sure I wasn't going to live till Saturday. 

When I'd decided to leave Billy and Jacob alone for a week, I hadn't really believed that Jacob would go 
along with Billy's rule. Every day when I got home from school, I ran to the phone to check for 
messages. There never were any. 

I cheated three times by trying to call him, but the phone lines still weren't working. 

I was in the house much too much, and much too alone. Without Jacob, and my adrenaline and my 
distractions, everything I'd been repressing started creeping up on me. The dreams got hard again. I 
could no longer see the end coming. Just the horrible nothingness?half the time in the forest, half the time 


in the empty fern sea where the white house no longer existed. Sometimes Sam Uley was there in the
forest, watching me again. I paid him no attention?there was no comfort in his presence; it made me feel
no less alone. It didn't stop me from screaming myself awake, night after night.


The hole in my chest was worse than ever. I'd thought that I'd been getting it under control, b