Strange Light

Mutated

There was a park that Anna could see outside the window of her hospital room. She guessed it had been put there so confined children like her could look out at something nice and green, but it only made her angry. To look to her left and see a place where people were walking around in the sunshine felt more like torture than comfort. Like those videos where people teased their pets with food. She thought it would be better if they showed people some kind of grisly scene. An execution, or starvation, or something awful. Something more awful than being in a hospital bed strapped to monitors and only able to see her parents when they were wearing hazmat suits. Something she could look at and say, "well, at least I'm not about to be guillotined."

Her parents were sitting on the edge of her bed now, in their hazmat suits, holding her hands and looking at her with that expression of deep concern that made Anna feel sick to her stomach. She wanted to throw off all the lines, jump out of bed, and say, "Look! I'm fine!"

But she didn't feel fine. She'd been running a fever for three days, and she felt... off. So when Dr. Claude came in for the family meeting, she hoped desperately that he would have some good news. An explanation, a cure, something.

"Anna!" he said, in a voice she thought was supposed to be warm. "How are you?"

"I'm in isolation suffering from an unknown condition you won't tell me anything about," she screamed inside her head.

"Fine," she murmured, because she had no backbone.

"Mom, dad," he addressed her parents. "We've been talking about this family meeting, and I have a lot of information to share. Do you feel ready?"

Her parents nodded. Her mom squeezed her hand tighter.

"I know this has been a stressful time for you. And we've been talking a lot about viruses and infections. But now, we want to shift gears. We believe that what's going on with Anna may be a little different than what happened with Emma Kate. It may not be going away. It may be something that's a part of her genes."

Anna's mother covered her mouth in shock.

"I want to reassure you that you all did nothing wrong," Dr. Claude said quickly. "Genetics are complicated. This could be something you passed along, but it's more likely it happened randomly, the way things sometimes do."

Anna stayed silent but her mind was reeling. Genetics? Her genes? Was she actually... messed up?

Her mind immediately went to her friend Brianna. Brianna had pale, pale skin and eyes that looked red. When they were all in middle school someone had been teasing her about her eyes. She'd said tearfully, "I have albinism! It's a genetic condition!"

Was she like Brianna? Brianna was different. She had trouble seeing and wore long sleeves outside. But she was the only person Anna knew with a genetic condition, the only one example Anna had for what the doctor was saying.

"How did we not know this until now?" Anna's dad asked.

"Some genetic conditions reveal themselves late," Dr. Claude said carefully.

"What does this have to do with Emma Kate's virus?" her mom asked. "First you tell us they have the same virus. Now you're saying Anna had a genetic condition?"

Dr. Claude had that same patient expression, but Anna could see the side of his face and his jaw was tightening.

"It sounds confusing," Dr. Claude agreed soothingly. "And we're not really sure about the connection yet, either. Sometimes, illnesses can cause innate conditions to reveal themselves. There's evidence that marijuana use can increase the probability that someone with a genetic predisposition to Schizophrenia will develop it. It's possible Anna got sick, and her body reacted in a way that's now revealing to us something in her genetics."

"But what?" her dad asked.

"We don't know yet. Which means our plan moving forward is to get a genetic test. That means we're going to sequence Anna's DNA and look for any mutations."

Anna spoke for the first time: "Mutations?"

Everyone looked at her, as if they'd been having a private conversation and just remembered she was there.

"It's a scary sounding word," Dr. Claude.

Duh. It was a very scary-sounding word. Anna felt that awful light-headedness that had caused her initial hospitalization to return. It made her even more panicked to think she might black out again. If her parents and Dr. Claude noticed her face becoming white, they ignored it.

"What does this mean for her right now?" Anna's mom asked. "Does she have to stay in isolation like this?"

"That's the good news," Dr. Claude said. "We've consulted the infectious disease doctors, and they've told us there's no longer any evidence of the virus in Anna's blood. We believe she has successfully cleared it, so she's no longer infectious. We're triple-checking another set of labs right now, but if those come back, Anna can be moved to another room out of isolation."

That brought Anna back down to earth. The panic subsided.

"I can... go home?" she asked.

"Not home," Dr. Claude said apologetically. "Not... not just yet. But everyone will be able to visit you without the suits."

The thought of being able to touch her mom again triggered the sadness that had been held at bay by the panic. Anna burst into tears.

She felt her mom's strange, plastic and rubber arms around her and heard the muffled voice of Dr. Clause excusing himself. She knew her parents were speaking to her, trying to say comforting things, but all Anna could think of was Brianna and her genetic condition.

"What's wrong with me?" she wailed.

She knew her parents couldn't provide an answer.