Leaving Riverside was not an escape, but a physical amputation. As the jeep bounced down the bumpy road from the village, Reuben turned to look back at the clinic, the school, the familiar faces now locked up and shuttered, fading in the rearview mirror.
The silence between Anna and Reuben was a thick blanket, sewn with strands of anger, exhaustion, and a deep sense of betrayal. He had ridden out epidemics, but this epidemic of doubt had been infinitely more paralyzing. In Harbor City, his isolation was even more complete. His temporary office in the health department was a cage. The phone wasn't ringing. Emails were going unanswered. The momentum moment in his work had not just slowed; it had reversed. The smear campaign had been gruesomely successful.
He was a pariah, a source of whisp
