• Chapter 1 – The Flu


    There is no way to pinpoint the exact date it began – when our world began to crumble and collapse. But it struck my world first on Sunday, October twenty-eighth of 2012. Rain was pattering down on my head, chilling me, though I was already soaked – having spent the better half of October’s first full-blown storm on my roof. Headphones in, volume too high and music overly aggressive, and eyes fixed on the flashing red and blue lights across the street, I felt a bit giddy with adrenalin. The ambulance had arrived less than an hour ago and now the well muscled EMTs were carrying out my neighbor, my tormentor for the first nine years of my schooling, on a gurney – under a sheet. One over her fat, bloated hands hung stereotypically out – confirming that Missy was indeed dead.
    Suits her to go out dramatically. She’d been “bed-ridden” for almost a month – I could hear her painful, hacking coughs through my window at night – and I guess the poor thing succumbed to death rather than letting anyone think she’d had a runny nose and, Goddess forbid, messy hair. I sighed heavily and thought to myself, Momma would not approve of my approval of another person’s death… I took a deep breath – releasing it as another sigh, Momma was always right – so I let myself feel the sorrow of the situation. A fellow student had died, she thought she was only sick and it was flu season. Anybody could drop dead next. Mommas always right, even when he’s not here. I say “he” because Momma was not my real mom, but a very close friend who tended to act rather… maternal – despite being a seventeen-year-old boy.
    I climbed back in though my window at a quarter past midnight, hoping sleep would take me quickly so I wouldn’t be consumed by my new worry for my friends’ health. In the distance I heard yet another ambulance rushing somewhere, making my shiver as the warm arms of sleep embraced me.
    Monday and Tuesday brought me a complicated mix of reassurance and unease. Most of my close friends, those who I actually gave two-shits about, were trooping through the days – though seemingly all with red noses and bleary eyes – this made me breathe a sigh of relief. But the number of students showing up and staying at school rapidly decreased in just those two days. Signs proclaiming that “Washing Hands Saves Lives”
    and “Sharing Isn’t Caring During Flu Season” were posted all over campus and, as I quickly began to notice, all over town as well. As I crawled into bed Tuesday night, or technically Wednesday morning, I quieted my growing fears of sickness with excitement for the young day. Halloween, Samhain! Ah yes, this was my time to shine.
    But when the harsh morning sun woke me, it wasn’t coming in from the right angle – this was practically noon lighting… Curious I creeped down the oh-so loud stairs and into the kitchen. Honestly, I could feel in the air that no one was home. There was a note taped to the fridge. It crossed my mind that it was stupid to use tape when magnets were so readily available. It read:


    Schools closed due to rapidly spreading virus -