1347

1347

(First One 1/2 Chapters Only)

Chapter One: The Poem

"Gloomy nights, gloomy days and that’s how his world always stays."

The little girl laying in the bed next to me looks terrified.

"Bobby?" I ask, "I think your poetry is scaring her, and I think it's scaring Charlette too."

"And Mariee!" Charlette says defiantly, "Mariee is scared of you too!"

"Nope, I'm used to it," I say.

"I hate you," Charlette says.

"Don't start," I say.

Later we get home and take off our masks to place them on the hanger or on the small

table to be washed. Charlette, who is normally fine with Bobby and his strange self, starts yelling at him. Well, almost yelling.

"Did you honestly think that poetry about death will bring up the spirits of a dying child?"

"That is a possibility," Bobby says as he nervously backs up against the wall. Charlette marches towards him.

"Do you want me to hit!" yells Charlette.

"Char please," Bill begs mockingly, "Just don't hurt him."

Charlette stops and we all turn to look. Bill, all of our best friends and secretary, is standing in the doorway. Her normally cheery face had an angry frown. Raven, a fellow plague doctor working at our fine establishment, is standing next to her. Bill walks over, grabs Bobby's arm, and pulls him towards her.

"My hero," Bobby says and kisses her.

"Not in front of the child!" Charlette exclaims, waving a book, that seems to have appeared out of nowhere, in my general direction.

"Now Charlette, what did Bobby ever do to you?" asks Bill.

"Nothing to me, he read this to a child dying of the plague!" Charlette shouts, throwing a notebook of Bobby's poems and writings at her.

"Careful with that!" exclaims Bobby.

"This is amazing! Wait, you read this to a child? And that child was dying? These are about death, genocide, and, other… very terrible things I will not say in the presence of Mariee. Mariee don't you give me that look! Anyway, Bobby, you don't want to make a dying person, especially a child, think about death. Like this one here, it's about how the second we're born we just start dying. You honestly think that a child wants to hear that right before they die?" Bill says calmly but I can tell she's quite mad. Although at who mainly I don't know.

"Well of course I didn't read that one! That’s a terrible example though, I should have read that one to her. It would've told her she was going to die anyway so why to cry now," says Bobby.

"Well then what did you read her!"

"I read her a story. She asked!"

"Yes," I say, "She asked you to tell her 

story and you told the tale of a gambler's life from birth to death!"

"Friends!" shouts Raven, "It's just us five here so we've got to work together or our work and our patients will suffer!"

We all stop what we're doing, kind of stunned because she hasn't spoken up yet. Then, realizing what a good point Raven had made, do our best at apologizing and go our separate ways.

Bobby starts writing his next poem, it's about mass suicide.

Bill looks over the appointments made for this week.

Raven cleans her mask, then all the other masks.

Charlette makes dinner and I, well I have no idea what to do. I could try helping someone but Charlette wouldn't want me to, I wouldn't know how to help Bobby. I could help Raven but she's almost done so helping her now would be stupid, I also wouldn't know how to Bill.

Now I'm just alone with my thoughts. I try to think of games I could play, just me and my mind. Or maybe something that involves the entire group. I'm not sure. We're all so different I'm not sure if there's a game out there that we would all agree on playing. Charlette is the mum of the group so I'm sure she'd be open to anything if I asked. Bobby is the one that’s probably insane and would like anything involving death. Raven keeps us from killing each other but mostly keeps to herself. Bill has a terrible swearing problem. Or that’s what Charlette says. Bill would like a drinking game most likely. Then of course there's me. Being the youngest I could probably get everyone to play whatever I wanted. Maybe we shouldn't play a game I'll just sit here instead. Thinking about us makes me think back to something Bobby said a few years back. I've never been able to fully decipher it but, at the same time, I know exactly what he meant. I like thinking about it when everything feels wrong. It makes us feel like a family again. An odd family at that but, still a family. "We're all different but all the same." 

That just feels right.

Chapter Two: Annabelle

"It's a nice night," I say. I say it like it means something. Like a magic spell that, when said, will make everything okay. It'll make the rain stop, the rain that has been pelting us ever since we left that house. A spell that will make Bobby stop crying. Bobby who never cries but, he's crying now. We lost a patient today. Nothing we could do and we all knew it would happen, just a matter of time. Bobby wouldn't accept it till it was too late. That made it hurt more than if he had just accepted it when we first met her. We knew she was going to die soon the first time we laid eyes on her. I don't know why Bobby was so attached to her. Maybe it was because she was so young. Maybe they knew each other when they were younger. Everyone in our town had known each other for years. It doesn’t matter the reason she's dead and no amount of tears will bring her back.

The rain feels warm, a gentle reminder that spring is on the rise. As we walk back to our home, with the small sound of rain dripping off the roofs and falling onto the ground, I think to myself. I think so many things. I think of Bobby, I know he'll be alright in the morning but for now, I understand his pain. I think of what Charlette would say. I know she wouldn't talk about the night.

Ellie