Measle ants.

When I was about 8, we lived in St. Michaels, Maryland. There was a civil war memorial park near our house, and my favorite thing there was an old cannon. I used to draw all of the time, usually horses and people with cat heads. One day I drew a little creature that looked like this:

I named it a measle ant, and I became completely obsessed with measle ants for years after. My entire family loved measle ants, and knew all about them. Measle ants lived in the cannon at the park, and they were called measle ants because at night they would go into sick children's houses and pick measles off, one by one. They were measle farmers. Because measle ants were so small, it took them awhile to get all of the measles off, so it took awhile for kids to get better. Without measle ants, kids would never get better from measles! Each measle ant had a measle on its chin, to show that it was a measle ant and not some other kind of ant, like maybe the kind that don't help children get well from measles.

I've always meant to write a book about measle ants, but most children in our country don't get measles anymore. Now they get it when the vaccine wears off as adults, and there aren't enough measle ants left to save them! It's sad. Maybe this is why I don't vaccinate the kids-- vaccinations took away my measle ants.