I
threw all the shoes I could find under my bed at his face. His wonderful
smiling face, stop that I told
myself, it wouldn’t pay to go all gooey in love with Jared right now. He’d just
ruined my paperwork, my project, that he knew meant everything to me. The thing
I’d been working on for two years and he’d erased it! Sometimes, I could just
hate him. He didn’t even fight back, he just stood there smiling. Why did he
have to be so enraging!
My ‘save the whales’ project had
been erased and he hadn’t denied doing it. The whales were dying more every
single day, and it was important that they be saved. They were so beautiful,
how could anyone have the audacity to kill them? It’s not like we’d die without
them! It meant everything to me, almost as much as he does. But he said “No,
you don’t need some stupid words on a piece of paper, you’re so clever already,
just say what pops into your mind. The only time when you sound less than
brilliantly fantastic, is when you think too hard about things.”
He knew I had self-esteem
issues, and It was nice of him to tell me I was clever and brilliant and
fantastic and whatnot, but honestly none of it was true, and he knew it, he was
only trying to be nice. I hated it when he was complimenting me while
simultaneously insulting me, he always did that! I kept yelling profanity at
him and he just stood there with his arms gracefully tucked behind his back, a
sign of harmlessness. I got real close to him and acted like i was going to
smack him. He blushed a little bit and smiled. My hand was quick and his face
left it numb, but I didn’t show the pain until he wasn’t looking. He showed
almost no reaction either.
I walked back into our bedroom
and found a shoe that seemed to be hiding from me. I picked it up only before I
could throw it at him with all my womanly might, he threw something at me. I gasped;
he’d never shown any sign of aggression towards me anymore, except he called me
a moronic idiot when he confessed his love for me. I smiled fondly at the
thought, probably a strange expression when someone had just thrown something
at you. Then I saw out of the corner of my eye what he’d thrown at me.
There was a red box, it was
little and insignificant and . . . a little red insignificant box. That’s what
it was. It had rounded corners and had a design on it that I didn’t notice
until later. I ran over to where it fell and picked it up. I opened it and
inside was a diamond ring. I looked up at him in disbelief. He had his arms up
in self-defense of the shoe that I’d dropped when I saw the ring case. I ran up
to him and hugged him after kissing him on the cheek.
“Oh,” He said wrapping his
strong arms around me “We’re hugging now, hugging is good . . . So what do you
say eh?” I nodded and kissed him again, more intimately this time. He smiled at
me and wrapping his arms around me again, he wiped the makeup away that I’d smeared
on my face. It was time to go. He nodded his head toward the door. I followed
him out the door. We arrived at the funeral shortly. I had already started
crying again.
I walked up to the coffin and
read the gravestone they already had planted in the ground. It read the
simplest of words, but they made me cry even harder.
Murphy Sladen
Loving Brother, Father, Husband, Son
.
1967-2013
I wiped the tears
away in a way that I’d learned didn’t smear the makeup. I squeezed Jared’s
hand, and we sat down. I didn’t listen to anything during the funeral I just
sat there, blocking everything out. After a while I closed my eyes, not
sleeping, just making everything go away. Clearing my mind, eventually I had to
open them again though, Jared was shaking my shoulders
He was coughing and his eyelids
were droopy. People were starting to leave. I guess the funeral was over. “Do
you mind driving home?” He said yawning, the yawn turned into a cough. I
nodded, rubbing my eyes. He fell asleep in the passenger side seat, on the way
home, I watched him as he muttered random things in his sleep. Then I got to
thinking about all the things that have been happening.
The death rate has been higher
than it was in the middle ages when this disease broke out. I had no family
left anymore. The black plague had broken out again. It was super unlikely,
since doctors had discovered a cure for it, but it killed in as little as four
days. And people usually pushed off the sickness as something less serious than
what it was. They had started giving out masks for people to wear at the
hospital, but we hadn’t been there. My entire family, well what I had left died
already, either from The Plague or something else. Most of my family had lived
states away, where the epidemic started. And my brother had gotten it, not more
than two weeks ago.
So many people had died in the
last two months it was kind of ridiculous and this virus showed no sign of
slowing or stopping, we just had to wait it out and everything would be okay.
Sooner or later it would go away, though and I still had hope. I pulled into
the driveway and parked. I just sat there for a moment then making up my mind,
I made a move to wake Jared up, but stopped short. He looked so peaceful, I
couldn’t dream of waking him up, instead I moved his arm so it was situated
around me, and fell asleep on his chest.
It was early afternoon when we
woke up. Well he woke us both up spasmodically coughing, but I didn’t mind, it
was cold sitting in the car. We went inside and sat down on the couch. He kept
coughing and I was starting to worry. Coughing like that meant he was sick,
perhaps a cold, perhaps something else. After a bit of just sitting there
listening to music he excused himself to the bathroom. And I laid there on the
couch kind of letting my mind sway to the music, Bob Marley was a genius.
Then I heard Jared call my name,
it was a panicked call, that of the kind that you call when you learn of your
impending death. I rushed as fast as I could down the hallway, past our open
bedroom doors. The bathroom door was open, which was where the cry had come
from. I stopped short of the door, and walked slowly to it. Jared was standing
letting his dark bangs fall in his face. There was blood on the sink where he’d
coughed; he was bent over the toilet,
“I thought it was just the flu,
that’s me for you, denial.” He said, attempting a weak laugh. I choked back
tears. Why? It could have been me and I would be perfectly happy had it been
me, at least I wouldn’t be alone. But, I was thoroughly convinced fate was
purposefully screwing my life over. What had I done to deserve this? Stupid . .
. everything! For the moment I wasn’t thinking about that now though. I was
concerned about Jared. He was coughing again. I was holding him in my arms. He
was trying to say something. I couldn’t understand him though, there was just nothing,
“Go – go get a mask,” I finally
made out. He waved me away and I left to get two masks. I came back and he was
coughing up blood again. I’d dried my tears while I was away, though they
threatened my nerves again. I shook them away, I needed to concentrate. Driving
him to the hospital was the most important thing right now. He needed to be
there with all the others. I had absolutely no concerns for my safety.
We were in the car again in five
minutes, I was now thinking about my own safety. I’d been with him all day and
I hadn’t started coughing or anything, so maybe I hadn’t contracted it.
Unlikely I knew, though, I was really hoping. Jared kept attempting to fall
asleep, I hated him for it. The people with this disease fall asleep and they
don’t wake up, so he couldn’t go to sleep no matter how much he needed or
wanted it.
He kept nodding off and I had to
get aggressive by the time we pulled into the parking lot, I practically
carried him into the hospital. Readjusting my face mask I explained to someone
my situation and they just looked at me pitifully and sadly. The young nurse
said
“There are already multitudes of
people being treated, there is no way we can fairly treat him in time we’re all
filled up, next week, we’re going to shut down, too many of the staff are being
infected, and we don’t have enough medicine to treat them all.” I stared at her
with the purest hatred I’d ever felt and she apologized and turned back. I
kicked at her, and turned back to Jared who had blood trailing his chin, weakly
I wiped it away and hugged him. There was no other hospital other than the one
that was two hundred miles away, and it was most likely turning people away
too.
My held back tears evaporated as
I realized what I’d have to do, it was our last hope, but it was a hope, time
to go see Meriwether. There was an old woman on our block, who had always been
weird. She was pagan, and she claimed to be a healer. No one actually believed
her, but she’d been in a thousand different people’s presences, when they found
they were no longer sick. People had been paying her for a while to heal their
loved ones and somehow or another, they were always sooner rather than later,
healed. I drove to her house and knocked on the door leaving Jared in the car.
I’d had to make a quick detour at our house, but it was worth it.
She opened the door smiling.
“Hello darling, how are you
today.” I gave a futile attempt to smile back.
“Not good. Meriwether, is it
possible you could heal Jared?” I asked, gesturing to Jared who was coughing up
more blood. I’d felt his forehead before I’d gotten out of the car, it was
higher than anything I’d ever felt before, and I’d worked as a nurse, before I
started working with the newspaper. I gestured for his to come to us when the
old woman sympathetically nodded. He tried to open the door, he was
pathetically weak though.
I coughed as I went to open the
door for him. He smiled his thanks, and then draped an arm around me. I led him
to the house, wiping away the blood that accumulated while I was talking to
Meriwether. He kissed me on the temple, and I looked up at him, he was having
trouble breathing and he was warmer than he normally was. He was also
exceedingly pale. I shook my head. This could not be happening. I led him into
Meriwether’s warm, homey, house, where he sat down on the couch, threatening to
go to sleep. After a minute of unsteadily wavering, he asked me a very peculiar
question even though Meriwether was standing right there next to me.
“Hon would you ask if Meriwether
has any medication for headaches, and” he said sweeping a hand over his
forehead. “something for fever.”
“Sure thing babe,” I said sadly
looking pointedly at Meriwether. She nodded, and then hobbled off to get a pill
bottle. I sat down next to him and slumped on the back of the couch. He slumped
back with me. I grabbed his sweaty palm, and kissed it. Meriwether came back
and handed me the pills so that I could approximate what dosage to feed him.
When that was all done and taken care of, I conversed with Meriwether about the
symptoms and sicknesses.
“It sounds like he has the
Pneumonic Plague,” she said finally. I covered my eyes, partially to hide the
inevitable tears that coated my face at that moment, and partially because
covering my eyes or closing them as I had at the funeral earlier that day,
detached me from the world, if I wasn’t there then none of this could be
happening and if none of this was happening, then everything must be perfectly
fine and dandy. As if.
I looked back up at Meriwether
who at the moment looked older than I’d ever seen her. She was drinking tea and
her long grey hair was down. He face was weary and it made me sad just to look
at. She opened her eyes and looked at me and they were brilliant blue and
cleverly inquiring. I pleaded with her: “Can you heal him?” She nodded at me
unsurely though. I was automatically
hopeful. She stopped nodding.
“It will be difficult though.”
My eyes widened at her and I asked why. “You brought him to me, very late in
the infection.”
“But he just started showing
symptoms earlier today. He wasn’t coughing up blood two hours ago!” She
contemplated this for a moment, and then nodded, leaving the room. “Where are
you going?” I yelled at her.
“To go get my healing tonics,
don’t get so excited, girl.” She answered in a reprimanding tone. I blushed and
sat back down, shaking a drowsy Jared from sleep.
Meriwether walked back into the
room with a satchel and a bag. I gave her my unyielding thanks the whole time
she was examining Jared. I was so grateful, there was no possible humane way to
show the gratitude I was feeling towards this old woman. After spreading things
all over his body, giving him pills, saying an incantation over his finally
sleeping body, she left him alone and we sat on the couch drinking tea.
Meriwether, who I’d previously
judged to be some crazy old hag, was actually a funny interesting woman. We
talked about life, and love, and religion. We talked until the sun went down
and came back up. When that happened, Jared staggered into the room while we
were laughing about something. I gasped and ran over to him, he smiled at me,
but his fever had broken and his breathing was even, and his face showed no
signs of coughing up blood. I hugged him as tight as I could, but his strength
was still replenishing.
His arms were feeble compared to
mine, which was not normal. I usually had to pat him on the back to let him know
he was squeezing too tight, because I couldn’t breathe. I led him over to the
couch, opposite a now grim faced Meriwether. Jared had shared my perspective of
the old lady, and she knew what everyone thought of her. She just didn’t care
enough to change. We sat in a bit of an awkward silence, until Jared cleared
his throat. I almost died of shock; hoping blood wouldn’t splatter out of his
mouth like it had almost the entire day before. I was still holding his hand
when he, politer than ever thanked her. She nodded. “You’ll have to stay here,
for a day or two, just to recuperate, but then you should be just dandy, though
you’ll be more susceptible to contract it again, so be extra careful, I might
not be around next time, I’m almost a two centuries old you know?” Jared and I simultaneously
nodded.
The next day, Jared and I showed
our thanks and left. We were standing with our arms around each other in the
doorway. Before we left, I remembered what I’d stopped at my house before
bringing Jared to her for.
“Oh! Here this is how I show my
gratitude for saving my—my fiancé.” I corrected the word boyfriend to fiancé in
my mind, smiling. She looked at the strange crystal I handed her. There was a
pink edge around it, it was positively beautiful. She gasped as she turned it
over in her hands and examined the entire rock, memorizing it’s every nook and
cranny. Her mind was truly boggled by it, she snuggled it against her face
greedily. Then she realized how weird she probably looked and laughed at our
faces. She handed it back to me.
“I’m not taking that from you.
That is a memory stone. It retains the memories, lives, feelings, and experiences
of the owner and all its previous owners. Those things are far too valuable to
give away my darling, even if I just saved the life of your love. See how clear it is?” I squinted
at her. “Anyway, I don’t need payment. Your company yesterday was payment
enough and everyone avoids me because they think I’m crazy.” She finished
laughing. I hugged her and left the house, my arm securely wrapped around
Jared. Meriwether smiled at our backs as she closed the door. She turned back
to the pot of tea in the kitchen and drank deeply from it before coughing into
a rag. She looked down at it and there was a star shaped blood pattern on it.
She sighed and sat down on the couch, falling asleep.
I walked up to the grave with a
bag in my hand. All it read was
Meriwether Song
1914-2013
I let loose a few
tears on the grave, getting my knees dirty I dug a shallow hole in the ground
above her body. I brought the rock out of my satchel. It was still as beautiful
as the day I offered it to her, even more so now that I’d polished it and shined
it. I placed it gingerly in the small hole. I attempted to stop crying, but
couldn’t. I stood up and said a silent thanks to the woman. Jared took hold of
my hand and led me away, wiping the tears off of my cheeks. We walked back to
our car, and I felt bad about it, but I had to push his hand off of mine. The
wedding ring was pinching my finger, I was really going to have to get
used to that.
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