Never Really Over

Blood stains the sidewalk. It marks the ground in a group of lines. A child no older than ten sits crying on the ground. His exposed knee being tended to a person that Laila assumed to be his mother.

Laelia looked away and kept walking down the hill, passing a fallen scooter on her way.

Just three years ago she was watching people collapse in the streets, blood coming out of their eyes and mouths. After the Great Sickness, as it began to be called, ended last year rain was able to wash away all the remnants of the disease. Well all the physical remnants.

Laelia could still remember all the faces of the family members she would never see again and the coldness of their hands as she said her last goodbyes.

No one talked about that anymore. It seemed as if there was this unspoken rule in society that no one brings up the time that everyone wants to forget. Only not talking about it does not make it go away.

Laelia opened the door to the grocery store and heard the bell ring above her. It was practically empty, as it often was now. When it had been built there were more people that needed to eat in the town.

She started working after the sickness ended. She had never had to work before. She was just a kid when people started getting sick and now there was no one left to take care of her. She went behind the counter and got ready for her shift.

The minutes ticked by and she scanned peoples meats, fruits, and bags of chips, spending the entire time waiting to go home and be alone again.

Ten minutes were left and then she could go home. Laelia kept her eyes on the clock and watch the thin red line go from one to two to three to-

A sound filled the air. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look. A man stood his face in his elbow. He lowered his hands and apologized, blaming it on the season.

Laelia took a deep breath. She had heard the sound of death again and yet everyone was fine. No one was hurt.

People started to move and shop again.

It was over she kept telling herself. She had been for months. It was a lie. The Great Sickness would never be over. Not for her. Not while it continued to plague her thoughts and kill her freedom to go through a life without fear.

Laelia’s shift ended and she made her way home once again. The trees were white and pink with the sparks of life beginning to grow. It was rude of them. The trees were able to shed and replace their leaves, the things that made them who they are, and then get them back a few months later. Laelia did not have that luxury. She hated the spring. 

The house was quiet. No surprises there. The dust on the counter was settling. She should clean that. Maybe later. Not now. 

She raced to the shower and scrubbed her flesh. Her arms turned red. Her cheeks were raw. She brushed her teeth as hard as she could until blood stained the sink. She wiped her mouth with her eyes closed. She could not see blood come out of her mouth. She had seen enough people spit blood to know what it looked like and how to clean it. 

It was not necessary. She knew that. There was no more plague. There was nothing that could kill her just by her touching something that someone sick had. But no one had thought there was before either. 

She got dressed and sat on her couch. A pretty woman was on the news asking the community to come together to find a child’s missing dog. That was much different from the news reports she remembered most. 

The couch was old and had tears in it. Her mother had scratched at the sides trying to escape the fire inside her. Her brother had chewed on the seat trying to stop himself from starving even though he had just eaten. Now here Laelia was sitting on the same couch hearing about a missing dog. 

Maybe the dog would be found. Maybe she would see it on the way to work tomorrow and she could return it. She would see the family smile at the return of a family member and she would have been the cause of their joy. 

She shook her head. Someone probably stole the dog or it ran away and was gone for good. 

The dog would not be found. 

Nothing comes back. She knew that. 

The sun was starting to set. Soon the only light in the room was the one coming from the TV. Her room was steps away and she knew she should go to sleep. She had an early shift the next morning. She needed to be awake to keep herself safe tomorrow. 

And yet she didn’t move. 

What if she wasn’t safe? What if she stopped? What if she saw what it was like to be the person lost? 

Who would miss her? 

Her boss might question why she didn’t show up to work the next day, but it would not take long before she was replaced. She didn’t have any neighbors who could check up on her. All her friends were gone or busy with their own issues. 

She was all alone. 

Would they find another cure? Not one to take away the disease, but one to make people like her, the ones who did not get sick, feel better. 

 Laelia fell asleep on the couch. Her arm hanging off the side. She dreamed of the child she saw on the sidewalk. He ran up the hill and saw the missing dog. It was his friend’s dog. He walked toward the dog slowly so as not to scare it. Once he was a couple feet away he noticed something. The dog’s eyes were bleeding.