DIVERSE TALES

THE GREEN HOUSE DISEASE

   Her black braids were in a flurry of tangled knots. Her white tee shirt was swiped with brown and red dashes. The white fabric stunk of dirt and soil. I felt indecision rattle my stomach. She could be infected and before some of the leading scientists could find out any more symptoms, the disease had all already taken their lives. I bit down on my lip, a bitter taste swarmed my tongue.

   Something that my mom used to say flagged to memory. "Not every situation equates you to be nice, but we shouldn't live by the roll of a dice. Our kindness to others should be consistent, that is what brings true peace of mind." Her calm voice careered around my head. I shook my head, already regretting it and pulled her up.

   Soon I was clambering up, the gritty staircase, her head quaking against each step. I winced, hoping she would stay passed out to avoid the pain. Soon, I was barreling shoulder first into the satin door. It fell right into itself, nearly toppling me over. I pulled her inside quickly before pushing the door shut.

   The smell of heavy disinfectant assaulted my nostrils. I  pulled both our shoes off and put it in sterilized water, just beside the door. I pulled the girl to the makeshift bathroom that included a small bucket shifted to the corner. A wonky  tap that dripped into a tiny bowl beneath it. The drip-drop sound accompanied the faint rustling off my feet against the bubble wrap that coated this side of the caravan.  A small square shape bath tub made of planks of wood that circled each other. The sides looked like they had almost suffered a termite infestation.

   I pulled her into it and began cleaning her up. After I was done, I wrapped her in a pair of my newly washed clothes of yesterday. I fell into the  small cot that sat pushed to the north wall, covered by an almost fallen beam of wood. I soon drifted off, glad for the chance of sleep.

   My eyes opened, my vision dwindled and at sea. I shook my head, warding off the headache that had ensued. If only I could get the leftover painkillers in the first aid box.

"Sure!" A voice replied, I jolted awake . The girl from yesterday was rushing in my black tee shirt and blue worn out and patched cargo pants. She opened up the box at the far corner just beside the sink. She ran back to me, her hands clenching the pills. I eyed her in caution.

"What? You wanted this now, right?" I remained quiet, taking it from her cautiously.

"Geez don't give me that look, I wouldn't harm a fly." I popped the pills in my mouth, the pills glided down my throat. My saliva faded  into nothing but particles before it sloped down my gullet.

"How did you end up at the dumpster?"

"So we're skipping chit chat. Well, technically it's public property since your name isn't written on it."

"That doesn't answer the question." I fired back.

"Geez, calm down mama bear. I can promise I wasn't up to anything bad."

"Just answer the question."

"And I will answer in due time. Just calm down." The girl said as she settled on the red carpet. I narrowed my eyes.

"From my part of the planet, when you meet someone new, you smile and ask for their name." She smiled brightly, her pearly whites a deep contrast to her olive skin.

"Now you try."

"I will answer your request in due time." I grit out, pushing onto a seating position. My back throbs at the odd angles I must have slept in.

"Touche. I have a knack that you'd be good at chess. See, that's getting to know someone, it's pretty easy to do." I breathed out silently. I closed my eyes and tried to drown out the static that droned in my head. I pushed down on my impatience and looked at her again. Her brown eyes resembled the one's of my annoying talkative neighbour down the street. Well at least before all this.

"I would like to know how you got beside my-" she gave me a frown. I gritted my teeth. "the public dumpster."  She crossed her legs over each other.

"Since we're cutting to the chase, I'd just say..." She used the last fifteen minutes explaining stories that didn't answer the question. I began to draw on my coat, shifting the loose threads of the material. Annoyance crackled within me, a deep burning impatience gnawing on me. "As small as impatience is," my mother once said. " it could send one of our loved ones into the E.R."

   Soon, I gripped her shirt, my fists balling the material. Her eyes widened in panic, my eyes trained on her.

"Who in the world are you? And how in the world did you end up in my dumpster?!" Her face clouded, a darkness overshadowing her features.

"Say it!" A deep regret singed through me, her silence banging on my nerves.

"I... I'm Nevada Enrico." Enrico? Had I heard her right? The scientist that had caused the mayhem in the first place? My hands began to shake, baffled by the reveal of truth. I let her go, grasping onto the realm of understanding but still backed into a dense fog. The woman, whom had caused this much misery. Her identity save for her name had not been revealed and she also wasn't popular before all of this. Yet, here she was, the woman whom had been announced dead. The woman whose vaccine had killed almost ninety five of the human population, including my family and friends, stood right beside me. The creator of the Green House disease survived while those innocents were dead. Had she faked her death? My mind tumbled with a multitude of questions, filling to the brim with sadness. My vision blurred, stained by dark lines of black.

   Her voice called out to me as my heart thrummed. My breaths wheezed out, more painful with each second that passed.  I groped at the wall, barely seeing through the haze. How had she lived? How is she still standing? Had something else entirely killed them or did she just have the antidote? My brain spun around and around, frying under the burden of the load. The blood roared in my ears, pained by the reality that surrounded me. Soon, I was falling into the black of nothingness.

I want to thank God for giving me the Grace to write this. So how was it?