The Quarantine Room
The Quarantine Room
by William Manning
Shel woke up with a sneeze. It took her a minute to realize what happened. The haze of sleep didn’t lift easily. Her upper lip was wet, and the seatback in front of her was covered in small speckles. She reached her hand up and touched her nose; also wet. Her head cleared, and she noticed that the passenger to her right was pressed up against the window, covering his mouth with his hand, and staring at her in horror. The woman to her left had leapt from her seat with such force that she’d ended up falling into the aisle. She frantically waved her hand in front of her face to ward off germs by swiping the air.
I was talking to some coworkers today and was mentioning how I'm not afraid of getting Ebola, but I am afraid of being sick on some kind of mass transit and then people think I have Ebola and they quarantine me for hours for no reason.
