Vau maneuvered the truck into the best position he could and then hopped out to connect a cable to their car. Malik and Magaly waited in the cab of the truck. It smelled of oil and had the gear shift on the floor, requiring Magaly to lean her legs against Malik’s. He wasn’t going to complain. Malik stared at the roof of the truck, trying to focus and think about what to do next. Should he call an attorney? Would the police help? Everyone knew that if you went to a Confidence Biotech quarantine center, you likely wouldn’t return for months, maybe longer. Those who came back were never the same, Malik had heard.
“There’s something that I just can’t get out of my head,” Magaly said, breaking the silence.
“What’s that?”
“You said that the lady from outside of the bar was from your dreams.”
“It’s strange, I know. I’ve always had pretty wild dreams. But lately, they’ve been much more vivid, and that Evelyn lady has been in them.”
“What were the dreams about?”
Malik thought back. “In one, there’s this wealthy lady from olden times, British aristocracy or something. I saw her as she developed a crazy rash or infection on her skin with massive red bumps.” Malik got the chills, and the hair on his forearms stood up. “It looked painful. Then later she was at a mosque, and it appeared as if they were inoculating babies for the same rash.”
“That sounds like the story of smallpox, or one of them. I’ve read about it in school. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,” Magaly said.
“I think Evelyn called her Lady Mary.”
“Some say that she was the first Westerner to discover how Muslims in the Ottoman Empire performed smallpox inoculations.”
Malik paused, and then shared, “There was another dream too.”
“Oh yeah?” Magaly looked curious.
“It was about a cowboy who was selling cocktails at a rodeo. That one felt way different, but part of it stuck with me.”
“What part?”
“He said that if they aren’t going to help me, then I should do it myself.”
“It has been said that dreams are your subconscious trying to tell you something. What do you think your subconscious is trying to tell you?”
Malik thought about it in silence, remembering the third dream. Do you have what it takes to go all the way? Do you trust and believe in yourself?