Life Without Penicillin

Alex hates the smell of bleach. She hates the fact that even if she buys different scents, her nose still burns with chemical stench. She hates the headache it gives her if she inhales it for too long. She hates that there are entire stores dedicated to selling it. And what Alex absolutely hates the most about it? That it is so completely necessary to survival. 

She replaces the standing dispenser by the door with a fresh container of wipes and places the other new ones in her special bleach cabinet. Afterwards, she cleans all the surfaces she just touched and throws the used wipes in the trash. If there is any upside to living in her own personal bleach container, it’s that she doesn’t have to worry about food stinking up her garbage. Unfortunately, though, that means there is no point in air fresheners or candles at all, in Alex’s opinion. She prays every night for someone out there to create an odorless bleach so that someday her house can smell like a beach or clean linen or some ridiculous food item again. 

But Alex ignores the smell after a while. That’s another thing she hates. That she is so used to it that it only takes a few moments to forget she’s even used it. Living alone means she doesn’t have to be nearly as stringent as other people, though. Even just two people under one roof means double the possible exposure to life threatening bacteria. She can’t even imagine having a family in this world. 

She looks out of her living room window and sighs. Alex wishes that she could just go outside and do... whatever she wants. There are no community functions, no restaurants, no malls, nothing entertaining in any form. Sometimes, because of that, she wants someone in her life with her. At least then there would be more to life than just through her own eyes. Stories that she could be told so it’s not just what she experienced in a day by herself. 

Some people in the world, like the ones a couple houses down from her, are rich enough to afford their own personal domes installed around their houses and yards. Each one with a high-tech air filtration system that takes the danger out of being outside. And to go with it, they replace every inch of grass with turf that can be regularly disinfected just like any other hard surface. Alex is jealous. Of course, she could just go outside. What are the odds that she would be infected with something nasty by spending just a half hour in the fresh air? But, doing that would make her a social pariah. Anyone that sees her outside without any respiratory protection would make sure she became an outcast. 

Alex’s phone rings in her pocket, so she pulls it out. Her best friend Sam’s face lights up her screen. “What’s up?” she asks as soon as she answers the FaceTime call. 

“Another day, another death,” Sam sighs sadly. She works at the city hospital in the ER, a job Alex can’t imagine ever wanting. But Sam had grown up wanting to help people, and a healthcare career was the one she chose. “Bacteria is literally everywhere, and not everywhere can be bleached to hell and back. How are we supposed to fight that?” 

“It seems that the first step is to isolate yourself like you are a hamster in a cage. Don’t go anywhere, don’t touch anything, and never ever be in the same room with someone unless necessary.” 

“Yeah, because that works so well.” 

Alex frowns, wondering how to brighten her friend’s mood. After a silent moment, she gets an idea, and she’s happy that Sam hasn’t hung up yet. “How about a game of ‘I Imagine’?” 

“I don’t know...” Sam looks sad, making Alex sad, too. She has been her best friend her entire life. They came up with this game as kids, and it usually made each other end up in fits of laughter so hard their sides hurt. They take turns imagining random things and describing every last detail to each other. Back then it was unicorns that could talk, clouds that rained chocolates, or houses that were mansions on the inside even if they looked small on the outside. Simple, innocent things like that. 

“Come on,” Alex begs a little. “Here, I’ll start. I imagine cars that can fly to avoid traffic. The default would be to drive, but when traffic is out of control you could fly it to work. There would have to be limits of course, to avoid air crashes. Like an interface to determine if it’s safe to fly or not.” 

“How long have you been sitting on that idea?” Sam roars laughing, finally letting the stress of work melt away. 

“A few years maybe,” Alex smirks, making Sam laugh even more. “Your turn.” 

“Okay. I imagine having enough money that I wouldn’t ever have to worry about bills ever again.” 

Back and forth they go. Some are ridiculous, like every house having a jar with an unlimited, self-refilling, chocolate jar. Others are more realistic, like electronics having battery lifetimes that span weeks. After a while, Sam becomes somber as she looks at her best friend. 

“I imagine a life where bacterial infections don’t kill half my patients in a week. Where the only bacteria we see is the good bacteria in our bodies or in anything helpful in the world. That a single, simple, small laceration isn’t a death sentence if it’s not cleaned properly or in a timely manner. Or that surgeries had better outcomes even if they do get infected. I imagine people interacting with each other again with more than a screen between their faces because there is no overhanging threat of death. A world where people live past the age of 50 because their bodies can stay healthy. I imagine a world where social media would stop scaring people and spreading lies. That’s what I imagine.” 

“I imagine that, too, Sam.” A small tear forms in the corner of Alex’s eye, but she wipes it before it can fall. “I think that’s a beautiful world.” 

The two hang up afterwards, neither having anything else to say, but it sticks in Alex’s mind. She dreams of being able to ditch the bleach wipes. Not because she hates the smell, but because that would mean they were winning the war against bacteria. That she could go outside, meet guys at bars, eat food that she didn’t have to make herself, or simply hold her best friend in her arms when she had a bad day at work. 

She hopes, for Sam’s sake and every healthcare system in the world, that someday they can stop losing people to infections. The hospitals do the best they can with the symptoms they can treat, but once bacterial infection sets in, it’s likely a death sentence. Sam told her once that sometimes people’s bodies can fight it off by themselves, but that’s not usually the case. More often they end up dying because hospitals have nothing to fight the infections. 

Someday, hopefully in the future, there will be a breakthrough. Alex knows there are some of the smartest people in the world fighting this war, and the human race will be on the winning side. She is sure of it.