VIRUS OF THE AGES

Kai was still up. It was late. Probably past midnight but he didn’t know for certain since his cell phone had died and he couldn’t find his charger. He had no clock in his bedroom so until he could find it and charge the phone, he would not know exactly how late it was. It didn’t matter though. Over the last few weeks, Kai’s body had required less and less sleep. Actually, he couldn’t remember the last time that he had slept. And he felt fine. Not fine, per se, but a lack of sleep was certainly not the issue.

Kai took out his drawing pad from his desk drawer intending to sketch the same face he kept seeing every day. Well, not literally seeing in person as that would require him to leave his house and he hadn’t been outside in quite some time. No, this was the face he saw when he closed his eyes.

Kia checked the calendar, wondering exactly how long it had been since the virus first began and forced him to home confinement. He marked the tally for the last week and added the last few days. 2,214 days. Roughly 6 years.

*  *  *

When the virus had begun, Kai was turning 13. One day he was in school and the next all the boys were sent home. A few weeks later his dad joined him while his mom remained at work. It was soon revealed that the virus only affected the Y chromosome found in males. At least, that had always been the explanation given, but Kai thought perhaps no one really understood the origin. A year later scientists learned that females were not only immune to any real threat from the virus, but their genes actually prevented it from leaving their systems. In essence, they were permanent carriers. Some men refused to believe that this could be possible. One man went as far as to confront women on the street. His tragic ending was captured on a cell phone video when he found himself surrounded by women. Solely breathing in the same environment as them had resulted in a terribly painful death. After that, no male dared to leave his residence.

*  *  *

As the late-night hours wrapped up another day, Kai went back to his drawing pad and stared at the picture he had just produced. It was a sketch of the girl, whoever she was. It confused him why he envisioned her all the time now, this woman, whom he had never met before. He would have remembered her as recalling faces was a gift he’d always had. He simply did not know this one. And yet, something was telling him that he did.

Kai put his drawing pad away and laid down. He didn’t expect to sleep but to his surprise after days of being awake, he slept. Changes to his body were coming, he had felt it for a while now. No, it was not puberty, he had long since passed that. This was different. This was exactly what he saw in his dad during those final days when his life was quoting scripture. The detail was precise, Kai thought, as if memorized. His dad went from knowing the bible fairly well to effortlessly recalling it all. Then, his dad spoke about 'the calling'. Normally, this would not be a big deal, as they both discussed their calling as disciplines of Jesus. But his dad was insisting he heard an actual voice calling to him. His dad spoke about the voice as if it was a best friend that he had known his entire life. He translated conversations word for word. Then, Kai recounted, when his dad's consciousness simply disappeared. All Kai knows is that he had watched his father's eyes roll back and then there was a vacancy at the Dad Inn. Kai never stayed to see everything that happened and would instead hide in his bedroom. From outside his door, he could hear groans. He wasn't sure if it was groaning or the gnashing of teeth but to either end, it wasn't pleasant. Those seizures, as Kai came to call them, had nearly frightened him out of the house on more than one occasion.

*  *  *

Those memories were nearly a year ago. Ever since Kai’s visions of the girl, he thought more about them, probably because he was equally disturbed by what was happening to him. He felt that he was having those seizures. He had initially thought or hoped, that the missing pieces of time that he was experiencing was just him falling asleep out of exhaustion or lack of sleep. He wasn't thinking rationally. But after he slept that morning he felt better. That is when he figured he wasn't right. His loss of time was increasing each day and couldn't figure out exactly what it meant until he set up a video recorder to capture it all. The tape ran for an hour and what Kai saw he immediately deleted. He tried to forget about the voice. It wasn't his but it came from his mouth. It was more like tones, an assortment of them. It was all so...inhuman.

* . * . *

The realization that Kai was deteriorating so fast overwhelmed him. He decided to immediately stop taking all medications, fearing that was the culprit. It was the only commonality between the symptoms he was now experiencing to those of his father. Kai distinctly remembered that last day with his father. In the morning the heat inside the house had been so intense. Kai thought the air conditioner broke and kept adjusting the thermostat until it reached its lowest setting. He then realized that the closer he got to his father the warmer the room had become. The heat was emanating from him. When his dad's temperature had risen to where gloves were needed to touch him, and even then he still left a burn mark through the gloves, a group of female doctors donning hazmat suits entered the house and carried him out. And that was it. As one might imagine, that loss had destroyed Kai. His dad’s companionship had made the quarantine so much easier than life without him. His encouragement and wisdom were now all Kai had left to remember him by. His father had always said that there may be tears and weeping at night, but joy came in the morning. As Kai soaked in the sun's rays that morning, he tried to relax his body and not dwell on anything but that which is pure and good. After all, that would have been the advice from his father.

After Kai spent time in prayer for strength, he thanked God for his mercies and in that moment felt an overpowering sensation. He felt like being there at that moment wasn't completely right. He sensed for the first time something else was being prepared for him. More than endless days in the quarantine alone. The feeling transformed into a voice. Not his own, but a voice nonetheless, and it was strangely calming. It wasn’t a male one like he recalled his father had heard, but a female. After a while of listening to it, Kai felt that same connection that his father had often spoke of. Kai sat and listened and he even prayed alongside it. It was incredible. Then, he heard it call out a name. Angela.  

Kai opened his eyes and said the name out loud. As he said it, the nameless vision he had been having for so long came into focus. Angela is her name, he thought. It became more evident than ever that this woman, Angela, was real. His mind swirled with more understanding of Angela and where she was and who she was. He instantly understood where she was, or where she would be. He wasn't sure which, but he knew that he needed to go find her. Without a second thought, of his or of hers, he walked to the front door and broke through the seal that had kept him from the outside world for so long. An end of six years of indoor isolation, to follow the voice. 

* * . *

When Kai left the house it was to no fanfare. No alarms sounded. That was not needed. No police were alerted to detain and return him home. The absurdity for a male to venture outside into an exposed world where the breath of a woman passing by would ultimately kill him, this was the sole deterrent needed to keep men imprisoned. It was now early morning and as Kai walked outside he did not see anyone. But he could hear the voice the whole time. As he walked it grew louder and more audible. He walked until he found himself on a beach. A vacant one, save for one person off in the distance.

Kai knew it was Angela. He sensed it was her even before he saw her face clearly. He stopped as she approached his position and he waited. When she was closer he tried to think of what to say. He hadn't gotten that far earlier. After all, she might be terrified to see a guy outside. He hoped she would yell for him to run for his life or run away from him, for that matter. But as she approached and was a matter of yards away, the reaction did not come. It never came. Even when they were within arms reach and he was staring at her.

Kai’s eyes met Angela’s, so he assumed. He felt her stare into him or was it the other way around. But she did not seem afraid. For a moment his head was foggy and the voice, her voice inside his head echoed. She was singing in his head and singing while she walked down the beach with her headphones on. But then the echo stopped. It actually all stopped. She stopped moving in stride and the ocean's waves stopped. It was time itself just stopping. And his thoughts changed. It was...a renewing of his mind. Clarity replaced it all and suddenly life sprang back and her voice and his thoughts were in tune. He was filled with joy. Joy to be on the beach, to be in the sun, he felt her joy to be the only one there. He felt her joy to kick around the sole set of footprints across the sand. He sensed her love to be outside amidst the peaceful sounds of the ocean waves crashing the shore and the birds flying overhead.

Kai felt all the love of this life. Not just from his, he felt that love too, but now he honed in on Angela.  He loved her. He loved her in a way to safeguard all that she was. He felt so much love that as he was transforming he didn’t even realize it was happening. From the bursting within to the receipt of light. Through it all, he was right next to Angela and she saw nothing. As the light entered in, it was pure and made of love. Kai didn’t feel fear it or doubt that it was good. His mind during it all stayed with her thoughts and yet it also traveled elsewhere. His renewal was incredible. The closest feeling to it that he could remember was from all those days reading his manual on how to live that he had increasingly been studying. His manual that was filled with the word, the one he remembers we call the Bible. All of it came alive in him. The word consumed him. Then, while still remaining on the beach, he was also no longer there. He was in multiple places at the same time. And before him was a joyful assembly of the many, the thousands upon thousands, and they all sang praise. Worthy, worthy with all praise and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and praise, he joyfully sang from his every being. He had no wings like some of the others, but his form matched theirs..and yet it was different. He then watched the most ancient ones encircle the throne and watched the living creatures ring out in harmony. And during it all, he stayed with Angela while she continued down the beach. He sang praises and sang over her. It was then that he felt his charge. He would watch over her and protect her. He would praise with all the others and sing out in joy and protect her all at the same time. He would remain with her all of her days until her time had passed. It would be 42 years, 4 months, 5 hours, and 10 seconds. 9 second....

Once his time with her was up and during all those years of her life on earth, he would prepare. He would wait until his white horse was revealed to him and he could follow the rider of many crowns. To be among the king of kings, and Lord of lords, to follow him. Until that day, as Angela sang and walked along the beach, he sang too. It didn't matter that it was a song that he had never heard before. But as she knew it, so too would he as the tune left both their lips in unison.

‘Lord, please, send me someone to guide me. Send me a guardian angel, give me strength from above.’