After the Cure

by Deirdre Gould

The phone jarred her awake. She sat up. Frank was sitting cross legged across the way, watching her. He was holding the receiver to his ear. She reached for the phone.

  "You can't hear much through these walls. Just Dr. Pazzo's yelling. What are you doing here?"

  "The doctor- knew about us. I don't know how. Stan maybe. She said you might have been infected yesterday in court, so I could be infected because of last night."

  "But I thought we caught it in time. I thought you said he wasn't contagious yet."

  "I think they are just being cautious. At least I'm with you now."

  Frank shook his head. She could see the lines on his face draw down in sharp angles. There were dark patches under his eyes and sweat marks on his shirt. "So now you can watch me turn back into one of those things. I can't do it, Nella. I'll die first."

  "It's not going to happen. To either of us."

  "If it does- will you find a way to- will you ask them to shoot me?"

  Nella nodded, not trusting her voice. Frank cleared his throat. "You said Sevita is here with Christine?"

  "Yes. Everyone who was in the courtroom or on the cell block is downstairs."

  "She must be going crazy. She's in the middle of the biggest story, maybe of all time and she can't report it."

  "Don't count on it. I bet she'll get some coverage somehow. Her camera guys are still with her. And if everything goes well, they'll be out in a week."

  "And us?"

  Nella shrugged. "A few more weeks? Until Dr. Pazzo gets sick maybe."

  Frank groaned. "Have we even made it through one day yet?"

  "It was early evening when I came upstairs. I wish there was a window."

  He scratched his chin. "Well unless they start giving us toiletries we'll be able to measure by beard length. Or clothes deterioration." He grinned and Nella was relieved.

  "I hope you know some good jokes," he said, "Or this is going to be a very long month."

  "Let's plan our trip. When they bring us food, we can ask for paper and pens. We can make lists of what we need and where we'll stop."

  Frank laughed. "I think we're both unemployed Nella. How are we going to buy a boat?"

  Nella shrugged. "I have my ways. I've been saving for a while. Little things, matches and sterno, decent cloth, jewelry and several good pairs of shoes. Things people traded me for sessions. And there's-" Nella leaned her head against the glass and looked down the hallway. Empty. She put her hand in front of her face and whispered, "there's the guns and the car too."

  "You'd really trade all that just to sail around the world with me?"

  "In a heartbeat."

  They stayed that way, talking in front of their glass walls until Nella drifted off again, listening to Frank making plans and trailing into sleep himself. When she woke up, the receiver had made an imprint on her cheek. Frank was rolling up his sleeve for a doctor in a plastic suit. A soldier knocked on the glass and Nella backed up, startled.

  "I'm bringing you a meal and some new clothes. After you put on the new stuff, put the old stuff into the bag. Make sure you take any possessions out of the pockets. Your old clothes will be burned."

  Nella nodded. The soldier opened the door and another brought in the clothing and a tray of food. The doctor closed Frank's door and discarded her gloves. She walked over to Nella's room.

  "We should probably get this all done at once."

  Nella was not pleased to hear Dr. Corey's voice. Nella held out her arm and was silent while the doctor took her vials and then departed with the guards. She turned back to her cot and picked up the clothes. They looked like a prison uniform. She hoped they were warmer than they looked. She pulled off her shirt and then realized the wall behind her was glass. She held her shirt in front of her chest and peered down the hallway. The phone rang and she jumped.

  "I'll watch for you. Hang up the phone. If someone is coming it'll ring." Frank waved at her.

  "What about you?"

  "I won't peek. Eyes on the hallway."

  "Yes you will."

  Frank grinned. "Yes. I will."

  They measured the time that way, by meals and clothing changes. Sevita called them until it was time for her to go. She promised to visit and Nella told her not to, that they'd see her when they were released, so she said she'd call when she could. The hall was quiet, even Dr. Pazzo having quit his frustrated rage within a day. Only the soldiers and the doctor wandered by on occasion, faceless and silent in their suits. Nella tried to keep Frank's spirits up, but even she was struggling by the end of the second week. One day, during the third week Nella thought, a much older looking Judge Hawkins stopped in front of their rooms. He sat in the middle of the hallway so he could see them both. They were releasing the rest of the court, he said, all but Dr. Schneider, Dr. Pazzo and the two of them. They were highest risk. He said the military government was convening a hearing about the whole affair, but he promised to stand by the decision to keep the bacteria secret. He said he'd see them in a week, but he looked troubled as he walked away. Nella was becoming nervous, though she kept it quiet so that Frank wouldn't worry. There was even less bustle on the hall now. She thought most of the staff must have left with the rest of the people in quarantine. She began to feel forgotten and it frightened her. She spent hours watching the guard at the end of the hall, making sure he was still there and hadn't abandoned them.

  The phone's harsh ring woke her one night. She looked across the hall, but Frank's light was off. It continued to ring, so she picked it up. "Hello?" she asked.

  "You know, last time I saw symptoms every time I moved or spoke or tried to work out a problem. But I think it was just exhaustion. It was hard to convince myself I wasn't sick. Especially after performing for Gerta." His voice was slurred and depressed. If Nella didn't know better, she would have assumed he was drunk.

  "I'm not here to make house calls Dr. Pazzo."

  He laughed and Nella shuddered at the hollow sound trickling into her ear. "But don't you want to know why I did it Nella? Don't you want to hear the whole grand scheme? Every sordid little detail? That's what we always want in the end, isn't it? We don't want the villains to get away, because we want to know why they do what they do. It's like asking a magician how. But a good villain never tells."

  "You don't need to tell me why, Dr. Pazzo."

  "Because you know everything, right?" She could hear the sneer in his voice. "The great Nella Rider always knows. Except you can't help one poor, innocent girl. And you couldn't keep up with me either."

  "No. It's not because I already know why you did this. I can take a guess, but I'm not even sure you entirely know why you did this. I don't want to know why, because I don't care. Your 'grand scheme' was just a mistake, Dr. Pazzo. You messed up. There was no master plan. Sure, you covered your tracks afterward and trapped Dr. Schneider into admitting what you already knew on camera. Maybe when you went after her you meant to keep the samples only as evidence. Maybe you thought it would help you find a cure for Ann. Maybe you wanted to destroy them but couldn't find the time because Ann needed to eat all the time and you couldn't risk being away from her for long. But you didn't do anything. You just sat in the lab and watched the world deteriorate around you. Watched Ann die. Tell me, Dr. Pazzo, how many times did you think about killing her and being done with it? How many times did you walk out of the lab intending never to come back? You don't love Ann. You never did. You may be overwhelmed with guilt by what your research did to her, but you don't love her, not if you could bring yourself to do what you've done."

  She heard him sobbing into the phone and begin to pound on the glass wall. "You wanted me to undo what you did, so you wouldn't have to feel guilty any more. As if fixing one girl would make the world what it was. You show the world this penitent face, even I believed you for a while. But if you were really so remorseful, if you really felt the weight of the billi
ons of deaths you are responsible for, you would have turned over the samples either when you were caught or to Frank when he was preparing your case or even when we returned with Dr. Schneider. We gave you what you wanted. All you had to do was give us the vials."

  "I gave the world what it DESERVED!" His shout rang in her ear and she winced. Frank's light turned on and he pressed an ear against the glass. Dr. Pazzo continued shouting and she pulled the receiver a few inches from her ear. "I only did what the world would have done to me. What we already do to each other. No one wants the villain to escape Nella. I told you that. I told you we were all villains. That's all that's left."

  She watched Frank jump as he heard Dr. Pazzo yelling her name. He looked up at her startled. Dr. Pazzo's voice dropped to almost a whisper and she pulled the phone back so she could hear. "But I knew how to take care of it. All those people going home from the court to their happy little undeserved lives. They're going to kiss their babies and make love to their spouses and shake hands with their friends. For a few weeks now, everything's been ordinary. But now, now they're going to start showing their true selves. We're all murderers anyway, Nella, even you." Nella shuddered thinking of Martin in the Cure camp.

  "You failed, Dr. Pazzo. There's no one infected but you. We caught it in time."

  Dr. Pazzo snarled and shrieked. "Liar! I can see Dr. Schneider across from me. She's slipping, Nella. She bangs her head on the glass and bites her own flesh. She's pulled almost all the hair out of her head. And then there's Frank next to me. You know, he thinks he's in love with you. I told him you'd never let a monster like him touch you." She heard a clunk as the receiver was dropped. Dr. Pazzo began banging on the glass wall. "Frank! Frank, are you still sane? Having any cravings yet?" he yelled through the glass. Frank's face was red but he didn't turn his head toward Dr. Pazzo's cell. He was watching her. Dr. Pazzo picked up the phone again.

  "But I was wrong about that, wasn't I? You like that mangled behemoth don't you? But underneath that cool, polished face he's just like me Nella. He's angry at the whole world. If I hadn't done it, someone like Frank would have. Has he snapped yet? I assume it would be harder to resist the urge the second time. He already knows what it feels like to tear into a woman's fragile skin with his teeth. And he's wanted yours for such a long, long time . . . You're so soft and you smell so good, Dr. Rider. His jaw must ache just thinking about it. I wonder if he'll get to you before you get sick. You better hope that guard doesn't let him out Nella."

  "He's not sick," Nella whispered, "You were too late. You didn't infect him."

  Dr. Pazzo just laughed. Nella hung up the phone. She could still hear Dr. Pazzo laughing through the glass. She told herself he was mad, that he had sprung his trap too late. But dread began to creep up and gather in her chest.

  The phone rang. She looked over and Frank tapped on the glass, the receiver in his hand. She picked up the phone.

  "Did we miss something? Could he have infected someone else without us knowing? Or left a vial somewhere?"

  "Nella, it's okay. We checked everything." She wanted to relax into the warm calm of his voice, but Dr. Pazzo had shaken her badly.

  "We didn't check his lab."

  "Other people did. Very thoroughly. If it had been there it would have been found. Think like a psychiatrist Nella. You told me he couldn't bear to have it out of his control, that he'd have to have it nearby where he could decide when and how to use it. He used it. He failed. It's over. The only people that may be sick are right here."

  She sat on the cold floor in front of the glass. "Don't be sick, Frank."

  He smiled at her. "What was it you said? 'The world will keep going' even if I am."

  "What if I don't want it to?"

  "Even if you don't want it to and even if Dr. Pazzo doesn't want it to."

  Dr. Schneider Snaps