by John Lundin
‘One in every thousand,’ Stewart mumbled to himself.
The numbers were troubling. Ever since Ebola had been introduced to Fort Lauderdale, the Center for Disease Control had insisted they were doing everything in their control to contain the virus. And now, with all their efforts, the city was looking at a one in every thousand situation. It was heart wrenching. Stewart wondered if perhaps they were doing everything that they could, or if they had just sat around and waited until it was too late. Stewart was aware of the fact that unless a cure was found, there would be no containing the virus anymore. It was at the point where locating and quarantining all the infected was impossible and thus, taking the virus off the streets was impossible. The only chance that existed for Fort Lauderdale was a cure. In fact, the only chance that existed for the entire world was a cure. Though the main focus of his attention, Fort Lauderdale wasn’t the only city affected this drastically by Ebola. Florida wasn’t the only state who had Ebola as its primary concern. No, it was North America, South America, Africa...everywhere.
‘It’s ready,’ Anne called out to her husband, shaking him from his thoughts.
‘Almost done, just another five minutes if that’s okay with you.’
‘Okay, but make it a quick five, will you?’
Stewart placed a nail between his thumb and his index finger. Carefully, he hammered it deep into the wood. Again, thumb and index came into play. Six taps and that nail also disappeared into the wood. Finally, he’d covered every point of entry in their home. He placed the hammer in his toolbox, one the floor beside him before holding onto the wood and giving it a firm pull. He did this to ensure that his handy skills did indeed make a difference and that the door wouldn’t come off with one push from the other side.
Pleased with his work, Stewart headed, with toolbox in hand, to the storage closet behind the stairs and propped the box back up on the shelf. He closed the door behind him, glanced at the newly boarded up front door and made his way to the kitchen where his wife waited for him around a small breakfast table.
‘Looks good?’ he asked, pulling out the only free chair and seating himself in front of her.
‘Looked better without all the wood.’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘Yup, looks sturdy. Let’s hope you did all this for nothing.’
‘Let’s hope all the prepping we’ve been doing will have been for nothing.’
‘Come on, take a bite,’ Anne said, changing the subject.
‘Gosh. What I wouldn’t do for a burger from that one place down the street that I can’t stand,’ Stewart said, looking at the pile of corned beef sitting next to hot, steaming rice.
‘Are you saying my food doesn’t look appetizing?’ Anne smiled.
‘No, of course I’m not saying that. It’s just, you know, you never really want something until you can’t have it. For so long, I’ve been waiting for the corned beef in the pantry to come close to its expiration day just to eat it, and now, it’s good and all, but a burger…’
‘Yeah, I definitely get what you’re saying. This is gonna be over soon. We’ve got to believe that.’
Stewart shoveled a fork of corned beef and rice into his mouth, ‘it better be, because as much as I love this house, I feel like I’m about to suffocate in it.’
‘I think we ought to just find other things to occupy our time. I mean, watching the news and all is just depressing.’
‘Agreed. However, we’ve got to keep up with what’s going on. Can’t be like those Japanese guys who were still hiding sixty years after war ended.
Out of the blue, Stewart’s telephone rang.
‘Who on earth could that be?’ Stewart jumped up, surprised. ‘Do you mind, Anne? Or should I just get it later?’ he asked before making his way over to the coffee table where his phone was placed.
A name flashed on the phone screen. 'Tim?'
‘How clever of you. How could you ever have guessed?’ Tim asked sarcastically.
‘How’s it going, man? It’s been a while since I’ve heard from you.’
‘You could definitely say that. Man, so much has happened in the past few months. It’s like Fort Lauderdale’s a whole new place. Restaurants are closed. We’ve got one grocery store that still manages to keep its doors open. It’s a downright mess, if you ask me.’
‘Yeah. What did you expect, though? This Ebola thing is out of control. They’re saying one in every thousand has it now. It’s not safe out there.’
‘Tell me about it. When was the last time you drove out?’ asked Tim.
Stewart almost hated admitting the fact that he hadn’t left his home in a while. ‘Eh. A few months,’ he said quietly enough that it could be considered a whisper.
‘Damn!’ Tim exclaimed. ‘That’s a hell of a long time. You mean you’ve still got enough food to make it?’
At that moment, it dawned on Stewart that Tim wasn’t calling him to check up on him. ‘Well, we’ve got to make do with the little that we have.’ Stewart tried hard not to sound as though they were doing as well on their stockpile as they were. However, he knew that Tim wasn’t stupid and would be able to determine that they did indeed have enough food for a while.
‘You haven’t run through that stockpile of yours yet, have you?’
A part of Stewart wanted to lie. He wanted to come up with some ridiculous story about how it all burned down or how they’d manage to eat their way three over a year’s worth of food in only a few months. Instead, he settled with, ‘not quite. Though it’s going a lot more quickly than I would have expected.’ A long pause later, Stewart asked, ‘so what is it, Tim? What did I do to deserve the honor of your phone call?’
‘Well…’ Tim sighed. ‘You know that I’m not the kind of person to ask for favors and all that.’
‘Good, because I’m not in the position to be handing out any favors. I’m homebound or whatever you wanna call it.’ This statement was followed with a look from Anne that caused Stewart to quickly pull his gaze away from her. He knew that he had to play nice or else…
‘No.’ Tim sounded as though he was trying hard to force a laugh. ‘It’s nothing that would cause you to have to leave your home. I was just wondering…’ He paused again. ‘I was wondering if I could possibly buy some goods off you. You know, considering I wasn’t as clever as you to start storing stuff.’
‘I’m not sure how much money’s worth to me at this point to be honest. I mean, it’s not like I can hop out to the stores and just buy whatever I want.’
‘Stewy,’ Anne’s voice chimed in.
Play nice, play nice, Stewart reminded himself. ‘But yeah. Let’s hear what you’ve got to offer.’
‘It’ll just be a few things like I dunno, some tampons, and a couple cans of food.’
Stewart placed his hand over the phone. ‘Anne, he wants tampons and food,’ he whispered to his wife.
‘Well, hell. Give them to him.’
‘Tampons huh. It’s that stressful over there.’
‘They’re not for me, you buffoon. I’m staying with a friend of mine. We put together all of our supplies and decided to just ride this thing out together. Except now, we realized that we’re running kind of low and well, she’s expecting her time of the month anytime now, she says.’
‘Alright, man. But I gotta ask, you’re not sick or anything, are you?’
‘Nah. I’ve been pretty darn careful. Not many people come back from this thing and with the hospitals full and all, I’m not about to take any chances.’
‘Alrighty. But don’t be offended if we check your temperature before you’re allowed in. We just gotta be as safe as possible.’
‘Not at all. I completely understand. Thank you, man. I really, really appreciate it.’
‘When should I expect you?’
‘I’d say in a half an hour or so if that’s convenient for you. I mean, with no traffic on the road I can be there pretty quickly, and to be honest, I’d rather get there and back befor
e it gets too dark out.’
‘Sounds good. How many cans are you looking at having?’
‘As many as you can spare, buddy’ Tim replied.
Once their phone call was over, Stewart turned to Anne. ‘We got a couple of cans of food to spare?’
‘We sure won’t be starving if we give up a few, will we?’
‘Nope,’ he replied.
Stewart observed the look on his wife’s face. It was one of pride; pride that her husband had lost his tough exterior and was willing to help. Stewart knew that if it weren’t for her, he’d be more inclined to say ‘no’. In fact, if it weren’t for her, Tim wouldn’t have the slightest clue about their stockpile.
‘Wanna help?’ Stewart asked before making his way to the pantry. ‘Oh, and where have you put tampons?'
‘I’ll get the tampons and then I'll come find you.’
Stewart turned to the pantry while Anne practically sprinted upstairs.
Looking at the pantry, Stewart felt proud. He and Anne had managed to build something great, something that prevented them from having to worry about food and supplies in such trying times. A part of him was happy that Tim had phoned; happy that he’d be able to help. However, a greater part of him was scared that he’d somehow contaminate his home by allowing someone from the outside to make his way in. He quickly pushed this thought to the back of his head. On the phone, Tim had sounded healthy and just as energetic as ever. Tim had sounded wise, like he was no longer taking life and all the scary things it had to offer for a joke. Surely having some company, even if it were only for a short time, wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He and Anne hadn’t spoken to anyone in person for a while.
Less than two minutes later, Anne joined Stewart in the pantry. In her right hand sat a pack of tampons.
‘These ought to get Tim’s lady through a month or two,’ she said to Stewart.
‘If you say so. I don’t really know how those things work,’ he replied with a smile.
Anne placed the pack of tampons on the floor before taking a look at the list they had pinned to the wall in the pantry. ‘Okay. So, I’m thinking we should go through the list rather than looking at the shelves. That way, we’ll know just how much of each item we have without having to count them. It’ll make it easier to determine what we can give up without feeling the pressure.’
‘Not a bad idea,’ Stewart agreed. ‘I was thinking, though. What about those oddball items that you bought. Think we should toss two Snickers bars in there?’
‘That’s definitely a nice thought.’
Together, they went through the list, finally deciding on the items they would give to Tim.
‘Three cans of tuna, two cans of corned beef, a can of Spam and a can of beans, sound good?’ Stewart asked.
‘Sounds great. Will you get the Snickers from back there?’ She pointed to a box to his left. ‘I’m gonna go get a bag to put all this in.’
Stewart did as his wife said, plopping the top off the plastic storage box and taking out two Snicker bars. He then turned to the shelf where he got the items he had planned on giving to Tim. Moments later, Anne returned with a bag in her hand. She tossed the box of tampons in before handing the bag to Stewart to pack the rest of the items. Once he was done, he joined Anne, who was now in the living room, lounged out on the sofa.
‘How long will he be?’ Anne asked.
‘Probably another fifteen minutes or so. I’ve got to remove the ply from the door though so he can get in.’
‘Why don’t you just have him climb in through the quarantine room?’ Anne asked.
‘That’s not a bad idea at all,’ Stewart replied.
Having solved how Tim would enter the room, Stewart took the time to sneak a few minutes of cuddling in with his wife. He could see that the entire time Anne sat there, she had thoughts running through her head.
‘What it is?’ he asked.
‘I was just wondering if we shouldn’t have prepared something for him to eat. I mean, if they’re running low on food, the least we could do is offer them a warm meal while they were here.’
‘He doesn’t want to stay too long though.’ Stewart responded. ‘Says he wants to get back home before it starts to get dark.’
‘Yeah, that makes sense.’
Just as Stewart relaxed, the doorbell rang. ‘That must be him.’ Stewart jumped from the couch.
‘Would assume so,’ Anne replied.
To the front door Stewart went, informing Tim that he’d have to walk to the side of the house in order to get in. It didn’t seem as though Tim could understand what he was saying and thus, Stewart decided to head upstairs rather than to continue yelling through a ply fitted door.
‘Up here, Tim,’ he yelled from the window.
‘Are you serious?’ Tim replied. ‘You must think I’m Spiderman or something. How do expect me to climb up the wall?’
‘I’m gonna put a ladder. Hold up a minute.’
Stewart retrieved the ladder from the side of the room, in the position he placed it when he had set up the quarantine room. Struggling a bit, he managed to get the ladder out the window and open it up long enough for Tim to climb up with ease.
‘Gosh. That’s like a workout,’ Tim said, carefully pulling himself through the window.
‘I dunno.’ Stewart laughed. ‘I haven’t had to use it and hope I’ll never have to. Okay, so, clean your hands up with this, real fast,’ he said, pumping hand sanitizer into Tim’s hand.
‘Man, you really went all out, didn’t you?’
‘You could say so,’ Stewart agreed.
Tim washed his hands with the hand sanitizer before leaning forward and allowing Stewart to take his temperature. Everything checked out and Stewart felt a sense of relief fall over him. They both headed down the stairs where they were greeted by Anne who had the plastic bag in her hand.
‘Oh shoot. We probably, should have taken the ladder in, don’t you think?’ Stewart panicked.
‘I didn’t see anyone outside in the neighborhood,’ Tim said. ‘Plus, I ought to head back right away.’
‘Here you go, Tim,’ Anne tried to hand him the plastic bag.
Instead of taking it in the first instance, Tim wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tightly. ‘It’s so good to see you Anne. You look well.’
Stewart was puzzled as to why Tim was so happy to see his wife and the redness that flashed across his face made this evident.
‘Oh buddy, I’m happy to see you too.’ Tim turned to Stewart. 'It’s just that I’ve never pegged you as the hugging kind. But if you’re jealous, I’d be happy to…’
Stewart reached forward and patted Tim on the back. ‘Maybe another day,’ he said.
‘But Stewy, I’ve got to say, I really can’t thank you enough.’
Stewart and Anne both watched as Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash.
‘Tim!’ Anne exclaimed as he tried to hand the cash to Stewart.
Stewart froze. ‘What am I supposed to do, take how much I think I deserve?’
‘This is how much you deserve,’ Tim replied, forcing the cash into Stewart’s hand. ‘In fact, you deserve much much more than this. You know how many people are out there starving? How many people who won’t be able to eat tonight because they haven’t got a buddy like you who’s willing to do this for them? I’ll be forever grateful to you, to you both.’
Anne’s eyes welled with tears and she threw her arms around both men and pulled them together for a group hug. ‘We’re all going to be just fine. Before we know it, this thing will blow over and when it does, you’ve got to come back and have dinner with us.’
‘I will,’ Tim promised. ‘Okay guys, as much as I’d love to stay here and be treated awesomely by you both, I’ve got to head back.’
‘I’ll follow you upstairs and get things locked up.’ Stewart said before making his way behind Tim up the stairs.
Anne also joined the men upstairs. ‘Bye Tim. Be safe,’ she said as h
e disappeared through the window.
Stewart, watched as Tim carefully made is way down the ladder, jumping from the last few steps and landing on his feet. Rather than just shutting out the world at this point, he kept his head out the window, taking in the fresh air and seeing that Tim made it to his car.
‘That was quick, ‘Anne said when Stewart finally pulled himself back inside.
‘Yeah, told you it wouldn’t have made sense to offer him something to eat. He really wanted to get going. It’s good to see that he’s taking everything seriously.'
‘Good but sad,’ Anne added. ‘I mean, to see someone who’s always so optimistic lose their spark really isn’t that heartwarming.'
Stewart nodded. Though Anne wasn’t walking around the house pouting, it surely was different to see her get used to the idea of staying home all day, every day. He knew just how much she enjoyed going to work; how much she enjoyed chit-chatting with her friends and coworkers. Now the only person she had to talk to was Stewart. She could call her friends and have a nice round of conversation on the telephone. In fact, Stewart had encouraged her to do just that. However, after hearing one sad story after the other and having each conversation she had circled with talks of Ebola, Anne had told Stewart that she’d rather cut down on the phone calls. Stewart couldn’t recall the last time Anne had picked up the phone and contacted her friends. One night, he’d even thought about drop calling, Maria, the coworker Anne was the fond of. Maybe if he did that, Maria would call back and Anne would be happy to hear from her. Unfortunately, he knew that his wife was right and that the only thing anyone wanted to talk about these days was Ebola. There was no way around it. The virus was spreading like wildfire.
For a minute, Stewart imagined what things would be like without Anne. He wondered how alone he’d feel if he’d kept to his lonesome all these years; if he’d never married. It wasn’t a thought that was too farfetched. Anne was like a miracle. She’d walked into his life when he least expected it. Though prior to her arrival, he’d pretty much had his eyes closed to women, she pried them open simply by being herself. However, if that one day, so long ago had been erased, he’d probably be scratching at the walls, wishing for someone to save him from himself. Luckily, he didn’t have to do that. Because of Anne, he didn’t feel as though he was in solitary confinement. He felt trapped, they both did, but at least they were trapped together.