Colided

Chapter 3

The next day the Barawan leader, the Sultan, called everyone after they finished their daily chores and contributions. As was their custom, they needed to coordinate the burial rites for their dead and put things in place. To prevent further contagion, the deceased were to be buried immediately.

While everyone busied themselves to honor their dead, the Sultan excused himself to see Dr. Adler in private.

"Doctor. This is baffling." The Sultan expressed worriedly as they shook hands. "What's happening is so strange. How did we get here?"

"Sultan, I'm really trying here." Dr. Adler pulled his hair, looking down in frustration.

"Well. Why is it so difficult to cure this illness?"

Dr. Adler hesitated a while before answering. If only they could see how he works day and night silently and restlessly to find the cure. The circles under his eyes were evident, but his hard work was overlooked and unappreciated by the urgent need for the cure.

"Doctor, the council is on my back to c***k this. I don't know how much longer I can dissuade them from starting to kick more of our people out. All they want for this area is a full-on experimenting zone."

"I'm putting my best Sultan."

"Why haven't you come up with a cure yet?" The Sultan looked at him with an accusing stare.

"All I've been able to come up with is the tincture to slow down the process."

"If we were to find a cure, we could make Barawa what it once was, even wealthier."

"I'm not close to that yet. I'm still testing if it can help with immunity, and that could take months, weeks at best." Dr. Adler replied cautiously.

"If anyone can do this, you can. The fact you haven't makes me question if there is hope for the people that are still alive."

"If I could travel to the city to get other doctors' help as I have been asking permission for, I could have more resources." He tried to reason with the Sultan.

The Sultan shook his head. "Out of the question. We need you here, Adler. People are in fear. We can't afford to have our only virologist wander off on an expedition that may not work."

Dr. Adler inhaled and turned to his side. "Sultan, there are other communities like us in need as well. There may be mutations already underway for this virus. I need more samples of other sick people. But I believe the fear of Cilomina is the beginning of wisdom."

"What updates do we have about what is really going on here?"

"The theory is that our livestock feed on these same crops that are poisonous, thereby making us susceptible to contracting the virus."

"I thought viruses could not spread from plants to humans." The sultan looked confused.

"You're right, sir. There is no scientific explanation for it. As far as I know, a plant virus can't bind to a human cell receptor. Viruses are host-specific, so it is practically impossible to get ill with a plant virus," Dr. Adler explained.

"It makes sense, but at the same time, it doesn't,"

Just then, Alyssa came walking towards her father. She pays her respect to the Sultan and informs the council had just arrived and wanted to see them.

"I guess it's about this same issue we're discussing," the Sultan points out.

"I'm fed up. I don't know what to do expect, but I assure you..."

"Don't assure anything. We all will die someday, but right now, we're dying like chickens. It would take more than magic to convince them or me that there is any hope for Barawa. The whole world is suffering, and nobody knows what to do."

Dr. Adler bit his lip, not knowing what else he could tell him to make him understand it's not as easy as he thinks.

"Alyssa, I will meet you here when we finish."

She nodded and gave his hand a light squeeze.

Alyssa worried about her father. She didn't like seeing him like this. She is proud of him, but many times, she has cautioned him on his workload. She admires how tirelessly her father works for his people, but it pains her to see his efforts seem futile to him and others. The stress and pressure were too much on him. She was thankful that he had not broken down. Sooner than later, she hoped he wouldn't find a resort in alcoholism or something even worse than that. Everything that had been happening lately was affecting him. He had lost a considerable amount of weight. Only if her eyes were deceiving her would she feel better, but she noticed the wrinkles on her father's forehead and his dark eyes from sleepless nights spent in his lab.

She hoped this paid off in finding a cure for the pandemic. But her father seemed to have everything under control.

The Sultan jumped in. "We should go. It's best not to keep the council waiting."

Dr. Adler's unrest grew, seeing the worrisome looks on the council member's faces as he approached them. They expressed their high demands for results and threatened to kick him out or transfer him if he didn't provide what they needed or contribute more to Barawas cause. They had done it before, but this time their warning looked desperate, determined.

After an hour passed, Alyssa tilted her head slightly and jumped, startled as she saw her father standing behind her. She had not noticed he got there.

"Father, you scared me. How did it go with the council? I hope they were not hard on you like last time,"

Alyssa recounted how the council shouted at her father at their last meeting. Alyssa understood their frustration, but that was no excuse for their rude behavior. Looking for a cure was all her father had managed to do within the last few months of his life. Nobody seemed to appreciate his efforts because he was yet to come up with a remedy.

They are treating her father as a fool. As if he is the cause of Barawa's predicament.

"I do not wish to talk about them. Having to talk to them makes me sick to my stomach," He barely choked out, meaning every word.

"We should go home now." Alyssa quickly changed the topic of discussion to take his mind off it.

"Yes. I'm tired and hungry. Aren't you?"

"Very. We can harvest some durra and dates on our way back, and I can make us some dinner. Does that sound good?" She said, smiling at him.

"Yes, that's very thoughtful of you," He acknowledged.

It was near dusk when they got back home. Dr. Adler felt so lucky to have a loving daughter for always being so hardworking. He watched her drag the sack of durra and dates to a corner in the kitchen. He had wanted her to harvest only a few; he knew how much work it was. Her back was a mass of pain from bending to harvest durra and dates. But having to harvest a sack will save her from the stress of going to the farm every day.

After she placed the sack carefully against a pile of harvested corn and finished preparing dinner, they both ate in silence. Dr. Adler went to clean his plate, but Alyssa said she would take care of it. He looked at her in appreciation and retired to his lab as usual.

Alyssa sat peacefully in the arm-rest chair, her mind thinking back to her mother and how her presence in the house made everywhere lively. Her mother died of Cilomina. She only wished she could join her, just like she knew her father did too. When those thoughts clouded her head, she changed her mind to taking care of her father and making sure she spent as much time she could with him. They had today, but who knew what tomorrow brings. All the grievances she had towards her mother dissipated into thin air. She counted it all as nothing. Her mother was gone, and so was her love, presence, affection, her talks. Sometimes she had to remind herself how she was or looked to still remember who she was, how she was like. Her understanding of her likes and the way she saw life broadened upon reading her favorite book. She picked out the book from the shelf to read and stared at it and vividly. Remembering her reading the book many times. Like her, she has read the book numerous times.

The book is called "In Sickness and in Health" it told of a fictional story of the Spanish flu that wiped out almost a whole community. A young man loses his beloved wife in the process. He regrets how things ended between them. His wife was a gentle and quiet soul, but he was a difficult man and unable to please. Most of their married years were spent fighting his dear wife and emotionally abusing her. Sometimes, when she was emotionally hurt, she lashed at him in disrespect. Now the man in the book wishes he had spent much time loving his wife and being patient with her. He sees all those times they fought as vanity. He wishes he had not traded a lifetime of peace for a lifetime of strife and majoring on minor things that will soon pass away.