"Ashley," Chris said, "you and your dad have the same kind of TGV. You're both stage three, and you're both showing only stage one symptoms! It must be a totally unique strain!"
I tried to make sense of what Chris was saying.
"But I thought I got it from . . ."
"Bryce Tripp? Yeah, so did I!" Chris exclaimed excitedly "But you didn't get it from Bryce! You must have already had it when you slept with him! I'd always wondered why you'd died so soon after sleeping with him, actually, but now it makes sense! You'd probably contracted it days before. You just happened to die that night." Chris held up the feather he'd taken from my dad's parka. "The parasites in your dad's blood look totally different from any TGV I've seen. They're darker in color, and they're tiny. Like a hundred times smaller than typical TGV. I'm just gonna call your strain 'TGVx,' okay? So, when I look at this feather under the scope, I can see the same itty-bitty TGVx parasites inside the tip of the quill. They're all dead now in the feather, but they're alive and well in you two! Your chickens must have been infected with the same TGV parasite as the chickens at whatever factory farm this thing originated in, but the isolated population at your farm must have mutated into TGVx."
"So," I said, trying to understand. "Slow down. You're saying that my dad and I got TGVx from eating sunny-side-up eggs?"
"Exactly! The heat required to make even an over-easy egg would be more than enough to kill the parasite. But not sunny side up. The parasites at the top of the yolk would definitely survive. "
"Okay, so, then, you're saying that because the Home Guard incinerated all the chickens on our farm, and because TGVx doesn't survive in the feathers, and because my dad and I were the only ones to eat sunny-side-up eggs, we're the only people who have TGVx?"
"Yup," Chris said. "The only people in the whole world. Without a doubt."
My dad looked at me, flummoxed. "Hold on," he said. "Ashley. You're TGV positive?"
I'd totally forgotten than my dad didn't know.
". . . I guess I didn't tell you," I mumbled. "But I feel fine! Just like you I feel fine. I'm totally fine."
"My lord."
Chris jumped in. "But, wait. Guys. You're missing the bigger point here. Look at me. I'm smiling. Ask me why I'm smiling."
It was true. Chris was beaming.
"Okay," I said. "Why are you smiling."
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