“Dangerous. I told you.”

“How?”

“Possible impairment of brain function from high fever; damage to the heart, similar to that caused by rheumatic fever; and thinning and breaking down of cell walls in certain kinds of tissue. Do you know more than you did before?”

“My mother was a nurse. Yeah, I do.” Something about that description bothered me—besides the obvious fart that whatever the virus did might happen to Tick-Tick. “Are you treating Sunny Rico’s partner, Linn?”

“No.” Ms. Wu raised her eyebrows. “I’ve met him, of course, but I don’t know either of them very well. Does he have this, too?”

“Yeah. So raise the tally of sick people to fifteen.”

“If I’ve treated fourteen cases personally, there must be a good many more than fifteen,” Ms. Wu said softly. “This may be an epidemic. If so, the town faces something of a challenge, since in the past our epidemics have run more to things like mononucleosis.”

We were interrupted by a banging at the door in the street below, and a voice shouting up, “Ms. Wu! Ms. Wu!”

“How do they know you’re here?”

“I left a note at the shop,” she answered on her way to the window. “Yes?” she called down.

“Ms. Wu,” I heard the unidentified shouter say, “can you come? Eglantine is awfully sick.”

“I’ll be right there.” She pulled her head back in the window and turned to us. Something flashed across her face that reminded me of the way she’d been in the shop when I’d gone to fetch her, and I realized that at least some of her brisk, confident style at the Ticker’s couch-side was an effect achieved with a little effort. “Take your medicine, and send your partner to fetch me if things take a turn for the worse,” Ms. Wu said to Tick-Tick. “I’ll come back to check on you as soon as I can.”

I went to the door to show her out, but she said, “I can find my way.” Up close, I could see how tired she was.

When she was gone, the Ticker stretched and groaned. “I suppose I’d best explain all my drugs and doses to you, so you can help me mind ‘em,” she said, her voice coarse with the irritation of the cough. “By leaf and root, this is a tedious business for you, my dear, nursing the invalid. I’m damnably sorry for it.”

“Silly. I don’t mind.” I took the cap off one of the bottles and sniffed. “Bleah. What does this do?”

“It’s meant to soothe my throat.”

“Well, it’s sure not going to soothe your nose. You know, if you wanted an excuse to find out how the other half lives, we could probably trade on Ms. Wu’s connections and get you into The Lilacs.”