The Boy With Rabies

Bitten

It had been twenty minutes, and Theo was walking around kicking rocks and leaves. He soon came across a raccoon.

"Hi!" Theo said.

The raccoon looked up at him and began to walk to him. Theo squatted down and stuck his hand out. When the raccoon came to him, it started to sniff his hand. Theo smiled and started petting it. As soon as he began petting the small animal, the raccoon hissed and scratched and bit his hand.

"Ah!" Theo screamed.

The raccoon held onto his hand. Theo yelled in pain and yanked his hand away and held it as it bled and throbbed. He wiped the blood away as the raccoon's infected salvia made its way into Theo's body. He didn't think anything of it but that it was just a simple bite. He blinked back the tears that instinctively welled up in his eyes.

Theo then went home, cleaned the wound and put a bandaid on it. He carried on with his day ignoring the small pain poking at his hand. Later that day when his father came home, they were sitting at the dinner table, when Theo's father noticed his hand.

"What happened there, son?" His father asked as he shoved another mouthful of food into his mouth.

"An angry raccoon bit me," Theo said calmly.

"Theodore!" Theo's mother yelled. "What if it had rabies?" Concern was growing in her voice.

"Mom," Theo whined. "It didn't have rabies."

"How do you know son?" His father asked.

"On those documentaries, the rabid animals have foam oozing out of their mouths. That raccoon didn't."

"Theo," his mother began, "You can't always tell if an animal has rabies."

Theo sighed and rolled his eyes. The family finished their dinner in silence. When they finished, Theo made his way up to his room, while his parents did the dishes. He showered and got ready for bed. Theo looked down at his hand, which still had a poking pain, and sighed. He put some Neosporin on the bright red bite marks before placing a new bandaid on it. He turned off his bathroom light and got into bed and quickly fell asleep.

"Honey what should we do?" Theo's mother asked as she got into bed next to her husband.

Theo's father sighed and put down a book he was reading, and turned and looked at his wife.

"I'm not sure Lisa," he said, "the raccoon could've had rabies, or maybe it didn't."

"Maybe I'm too paranoid," Lisa said, "what do you think, Matt?"

Matt looked at her for a moment before answering. "Nah," he said, "we're Theo's parents, it's our job to make sure he's okay. I don't think there's such thing as being paranoid when your child gets bitten by a wild animal."

Lisa nodded in agreement. "He could be fine," Matt suggested. However, he and Lisa didn't want to take any chances, so the next day Theo's mother made an appointment scheduled for the following week, but by then the illness would've already killed most of Theo's health.

11/30/19 Update: fixed formatting