Laurel wakes up in the morning hating life in all of its rich bitterness. She hadn’t been expecting her period for another week yet mother nature hadn’t gotten the memo and cramps now weave their way throughout her ovaries leaving her doubled over in the bed and simply trying to breathe through the pain. After minutes of waiting for it to pass, when she finally feels like she can’t put up with anymore, she drags herself out of the bed to the bathroom desperately hoping that she still has tampons or at the very least a panty liner. Laurel can feel a warmth oozing between her legs that makes her hurry more in the act of pulling down her pants and letting everything flood out of her into the toilet. There’s an involuntary sigh that comes as not just the blood leaves her but as the cramps begins to subside as well. Laurel then begins to clean herself up, but instead of finding blood there’s just black goop.

Laurel stares at it real hard, ‘Well, that can’t be good.’ she thinks to herself, but digs around in the cabinets for a tampon anyway to continue on with her morning.

The shift is a gradual one that goes unnoticed for a long time until it’s impossible to not notice like when becomes aware that music has stopped or like coming upon a river in a forest. Laurel goes through the motions of her morning without noticing immediately that something has changed. She makes her bed, takes a shower, puts on clean clothes, packs her school bag, and attempts to tame her curly hair all the while keeping her eye on the clock.

When Laurel goes into the living room the first noticeable shift occurs. She sits her backpack by the door next to her shoes, but when she turns around her father is standing behind her.

“You won’t be going to school today.” He informs her.

“What?” She stares up at him in confusion.

Her father just shrugs, “School called, said they were closing for the day because of a sickness that’s going around.”

“Sickness…”

“Yeah, I guess the kids in the city have got it bad and since the city school’s closed our town closed ours as well. You know how it is.”

“Right…” Laurel continues to stare as the silence begins to stretch between them.

Her father laughs and wraps his hand around her shoulders, “You think too much Laurel. Come on, you’re mom is cooking breakfast.” He steers her toward the dining room.

Laurel blinks and tries clear her head, but the more she tries the more the thoughts invade. Her mind keeps running in circles with just one word: sickness.

But what is a sickness? A foreign substance invading the body, the body tries to kill it: fevers, coughing, puking, runny nose, sore throat anything to kill the substance and keep more out. Or a foreign idea, gets in your head makes you do things you wouldn’t normally do: scream, laugh, kill, cry, hurt yourself, hurt others, be irrational, be insane. Can you get sick from something that’s been here the entire time though and you just aren’t aware of it? Like a tumor waiting patiently or a cancer working silently. If anyone can figure it out though it’s Laurel.