She paused and those nearest the quiet defendant turned and stared at him.
He didn't even notice for he was once again ten years old and standing outside his cousin's bedroom window. He wasn't supposed to be there because Billy was sick with an odd virus and had been quarantined until the doctors had decided what ailed him.
"No," Billy said, in answer to his question. "Don't be silly. If I could get rid of this awful cough I would, wouldn't I?"
"I can," Carl replied, his youthful voice confident.
Of course Billy didn't believe him but Carl saw what was to be done and did it. Billy's dad, disturbed by the excited conversation, came and told Carl to go on home where he belonged; but Carl forgot his scooter and had to go back after it. He could hear Billy's parents talking in the living room.
"Carl is a very strange boy," said Billy's mother.
"If you ask me, he's half crazy. All of this wild talk about doctoring cats, and that dead frog that he said he brought back to life."
(This was not quite true, Carl knew. The frog had not been dead, only sick. He had proudly told his uncle of the incident only a day or two before.)
"I think that we should have a little talk with Jane. Surely, she can see that he is not normal. He should be in that school for abnormal children over in the valley," Billy's father said emphatically.