DECEMBER TENTH
NUMBER OF CASES: 1,606
NUMBER OF DEATHS: 1
After a night plagued by restless sleep, Jack threw back the covers and got out of bed. Last evening, when he returned from dinner, there was a voice message from Madison informing him she would pick him up at seven fifteen to drive him to the airport. For obvious reasons, he assumed her offer was not the result of his charming personality but came at the behest of Helen Morales.
Jack telephoned the ICU and spoke with the nurse taking care of Tess. She reported she’d had a stable night but was still unresponsive. Her rash was still present, but her muscle spasms had improved with heavy sedation. She also mentioned that as Dr. Fuller had predicted, almost all of the other women with GNS were showing the same new symptoms that Tess had exhibited. Word of the first GNS death had reached him the night before. The news only served to heighten the urgency of a situation that was already a ticking time bomb.
While he finished getting dressed Jack flipped on the TV and did a quick lap. Every morning news program was featuring coverage of the outbreak with special attention to the first death. Feeling more and more discouraged with each story, he turned off the television and went downstairs. Having some time to spare, he walked through the lobby’s expansive atrium and exited the back of the hotel onto a terrace that overlooked a private marina. He strolled past an endless line of yachts, one more spectacular than the next. Some were already adorned with lights and other elaborate Christmas decorations for the yearly holiday boat parade on the Intracoastal Waterway due to take place in a couple of days. A sudden frenetic squawking pierced the air. Although he hadn’t lived in Florida for many years, he had no difficulty identifying the sound. Looking up, he watched a flock of wild parrots diving and climbing in synchronicity as if they were tethered together with a clear fishing line.
After a few minutes, Jack headed back to the terrace and found a seat at a wrought iron table. Gazing without purpose across the waterway, his thoughts turned to Tess. His pulse quickened while in his mind’s eve he found himself intensely studying her disease, personifying it as if it were his sworn enemy, a phenomenon common amongst physicians. When an elderly couple engaged in a heated conversation strolled past, Jack was suddenly snapped back to the here and now. He glanced down at his watch. He stood up and headed back toward the front of the hotel to meet Madison.
Standing under the arched stone entranceway, Jack watched the piercing rays of the sun streaming through the palm trees. He wasn’t paying particular attention when a black Mini Cooper convertible pulled up. It was only when he heard two quick taps of the horn that he bent over and looked in the passenger-side window.
“Good morning,” he said.
“It’s open,” Madison told him.
The parking attendant, his lips pressed tightly together to stave off a smile, opened the door.
“You don’t happen to have a shoehorn on you?” Jack whispered to him.
After a series of maneuvers that would have made even the most seasoned Cirque du Soleil contortionist stand up and applaud, Jack managed to work his way into the passenger seat.
“Great car,” he said. Madison didn’t smile or say anything. Undaunted, Jack went on, “I called the ICU when I got up. The nurse taking care of Tess told me she had a relatively stable night.”
“I know. I called too.”
“I assume you heard about the woman in Spokane who died.”
“I did. Since then, two more have been reported. One from New Jersey and the other from New Mexico. Both the babies were delivered by emergency C-section and are alive.”
Jack’s stomach rolled. “No, I hadn’t heard. I guess we can assume the topic will come up at today’s meeting.”
During the ride to the airport, the conversation remained civil but strained. Waiting for their flight in the gate area, Madison continued to answer Jack’s questions with chopped answers and rare eye contact. The flight was more of the same. By the time they landed in Atlanta, whatever hope he had had that Madison was just having a bad day when they had first met had long evaporated.