After Olive got sick with a bad and lingering flu and Imogen’s health continued to go downhill, I went to speak with Miss Harrison and Mr. Weevil. I sat in Mr. Weevil’s office – what used to be the principal’s office in the old high school – and reported what the Young Doctor had said to me after he’d seen me lip-pointing my brush.
“Two of our girls are very sick right now,” I said. “I’m wondering if it might be the radium paint that’s making them so ill?”
“Radium making them ill?” Mr. Weevil repeated back at me. He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers above his ample belly. “As we all well know, radium is completely safe. Not only that, it is a potent cure-all. It’s in all the papers! Perpetual sunshine, they’re calling it. And it’s all natural! Our paint certainly contains
