Thursday, November 21, 2019 - Fortune-teller

It was lunchtime at school. 11th graders, including Moria and Simon, were eating probably the most terrible pizza. Moria mentioned to Simon how she wished they had a warm pumpkin soup instead of a cheap interpretation of Italian cuisine. Naturally, Simon went off about the flaws in school buffets. It was a long monologue. Moria was usually a good listener, but today she drifted away while Simon was talking. When he finally noticed that Moria had something else on her mind, he stopped. He followed her gaze to discover she was gawking at the water fountain.

"Moria, are you thirsty or something?" asked Simon. 

Moria blinked a couple of times and shook her head. "What? Thirsty? Why?"

"Because you are staring at the water fountain?"

"Oh. I guess, I zoned out a bit."

"Did I talk too much again? Argh, I'm working on it."

"It's okay," said Moria with a grin, "It's just I’ve been preoccupied lately"

"I noticed."

"That obvious?" said Moria. Simon answered with a nod. Moria continued, "It's silly. Yesterday, My dad told me a story that stuck with me. Apparently, I had my future foretold at birth."

"Uh, you got to tell me about that!" said Simon. 

"My dad told me that right after being born, an offbeat lady approached him. She wore a dressed as if she came straight from a carnival. She pointed at me and said, 'She's going to be like me, you know.' Who goes to new parents and says stuff like that? Obviously, my dad ignored her, but she went on, 'She's going to be a fortune-teller like me. Though, she won't be able to foresee anything before she reaches the age of 17. The age of maturity for our kind."

“There are so many weirdos! And, who let her in?” said Simon.

“I don’t know. On the plus side, my dad and I had a good laugh yesterday.”

“Yeah, I could imagine,” said Simon with a grin.

The school bell rang, and that was all they said about the mysterious fortune telling for the next couple of days (but later on that). Now, they had to sit through 45 minutes of nonstop blabber by Mr. Autumn. He was teaching about the Trojan Horse that day, yet an enormous wooden horse alleged as a gift was not on Moria's mind at the moment. Would she start seeing the future in a week?

Friday, November 29, 2019 - Moria's birthday

The night before 29th, Moria didn't get a lot of sleep. "Will I be able to see the future? Why should I even believe that, just because a strange lady said so 17 years ago? Even if I did start seeing the future, so what? And how would it even work? If I do see the future will it be set in stone, or would I be able to alter it? Why am I even thinking about this?" After a couple of hours, she finally fell asleep and had an odd nightmare. However, she had so much fun on her birthday that she didn’t think about it until late at night. But, we’ll talk about that later.

Moria, Simon, and a few other friends had spent the whole day together. After school, they went to the movies, then ate a bunch of junk food, and got drunk off of light beer. By nightfall, Simon had started talking about conspiracy theories. Moria could never figure out if Simon was joking about the theories or if he was serious. Maybe, a bit of both?

Around midnight, when tipsiness began to wear off, the group started splitting up. Eventually, it was just Simon and Moria left. They usually walked home together, since they lived very near. Moria finally had a chance to talk about her dream. 

"Simon, I had a vision," said Moria.

"Girl, you are lightweight. Are you still drunk?" said Simon lazily. 

"It wore off already. Okay, maybe it was not a vision, but it was a weird dream."

"Yes, dreams can be that way sometimes… No, actually, most of the time. A couple of days ago, I dreamt about riding a talking unicorn on a rainbow. At the end of the rainbow, Mr. Autumn was sitting on a pot of gold. He was waving a test at me and declared I wouldn't get the gold until I got every question right. And, if I failed, he threatened to give me two weeks of detention."

"Oh, that's not weird. Mr. Autumn threatens to give us 'two weeks of detention' all the time." They giggled. Moria continued, "Anyway, it wasn't quite like that. That's normal for a dream. The creepy part was how real it felt."

"Okay. So, what happened in your dream/vision?"

"I dreamt that I woke up and went to the living room. It was like 4 or 5 in the morning, pitch black outside. The news channel was on TV, which is strange because we don’t usually watch the news on TV. It was cold and foggy in the room. The news reporter was talking about a 61-year-old man in China, who died from pneumonia. He caught some kind of virus in a wet Market, in Muhan as I remember. Forty-something people had the same thing. They said that some lab reports showed it could be a new type of coronavirus, and highly infectious."

"Okay, sounds like a normal dream so far," said Simon. He was scratching his chin and nodding along as Moria talked.

"Maybe... But, you know how they say you can't feel things in your dreams? Well, I pinched myself, and I felt it. Plus, I felt cold too. Then, just to make sure, I poked my finger with a needle, and again, it hurt. Also, I bled a little but now I have no scratch, so I couldn’t have been sleepwalking.”

"So, from what I understand, it was not a dream, because you could feel pain and cold, as you would in real life. But it was a dream because you don't have a scratch on you."

"Exactly, that's why I'm creeped out. Could it be true? Am I having visions, like some crazy woman told my dad?"

"Um, I don't know. Did you check the news today?"

"Nope."

“Let me see,” said Simon and started typing on his phone. After a couple of minutes, he shook his head and added, “Nothing similar is on the news. It was probably a very vivid dream. That’s all.” 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Um, let’s change the subject, okay?”

"Sure. Um, did I tell you about the new YouTube channel I found? There's this crazy..."

They talked for a while, until they arrived by Simon’s home, and said their goodbyes. Now that Moria didn’t have anyone to distract her, she started thinking about her odd nightmare again. She did want to be able to see the future, but she didn’t want a new virus to break out, which could possibly lead to a global pandemic.  

Sunday, January 12, 2020 - the News

Simon was woken up by the sound of the TV. His mom usually watched the news from the night before, in the mornings. He went out of his room to join his mom. 

"What’s on the news?"

"Shhh, listen," answered Simon's mom without removing her gaze from TV. 

"Okay, sorry," said Simon. He got some cereal and sat next to her. 

"In central Chinese city - Wuhan, a 61-year-old man died from pneumonia in an outbreak of a yet to be identified virus. Wuhan health authorities report, seven others are in critical condition. In total, 41 people have been diagnosed with the pathogen..." said the news reporter. 

"This sounds familiar."

"Initial lab tests point to a new type of coronavirus. The Wuhan Muni..."

"Wait a second," said Simon. His eyes widened. "This cannot be possible."

"It is. They got it from a live wet market," said Simon’s mom.

"Wet market? No, no, no! I got to call Moria." said Simon and ran out of the room.

"Oh, I didn’t know she cared about wet markets in China that much..."