My Cardboard Balcony

Blank-blank-itis by Belinda Roddie Jeremy had tonsillitis and acute appendicitis "How's that cute?" Hannah tried to ask but she couldn't - laryngitis (wait, or was it pharyngitis?). Poor Samantha got bronchitis after Grandpa got arthritis. I would hate to break the pattern but you've got mononucleosis and some bad tuberculosis and some nasty halitosis - here's a pill, now off you go-sis!

"If the caterpillar turns into a butterfly," asked Sadie, "what does the butterfly turn into?" Mister Deidrich, smiling warmly, shook his head. "No, dear," he said as he wiped away the chalk from the black nothingness in front of his classroom. "Butterflies don't turn into anything else. They just stay butterflies." "Really?" "Yeah," the teacher replied. "Isn't that beautiful?"