deadbolt?’
‘Anne,’ Stewart pleaded.
‘Yeah. That’s what I thought. You don’t want to hear just how heartless you were. Absolutely heartless. God knows, you’re not the friendliest person to begin with, but treating Ed like a burglar. Acting as though he was being an asshole for coming to you for help, that’s just downright cruel.’
‘I’m not a doctor, Anne.’
‘To hell you’re not. What would you do, put your patients in solitary confinement when they’ve got the common cold?’
‘Anne,’ Stewart pleaded again. He was wrong. There was something worse than her silence. The way she was breaking him down and making him seem as though he had horns protruding from his head was traumatizing. ‘I did this for us.’
‘Well you know what, Stewy?’ she hissed. ‘The next time, just think about you .’
‘There’s no just me in a marriage. So I’m sorry, I can’t do that and quite frankly, I’d do it again. If this happened ten times in a row, I’d always protect you. I’d always protect us.’
‘And if it happened to us… If we were the ones who needed to go knocking on someone’s door for help. What then?’
‘I’d understand. I’d fully understand if no one wanted to let us in. The entire city is in a state of panic and for a damn good reason at that. You know how many people have died from this thing. I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure that we’re not the next ones to end up six feet under. I’m putting us above all of them. No one’s fighting for our survival. No one’s making sure that we’re okay. Our stockpile didn’t buy itself. We didn’t go out and get hazmat suits because the government said it’s about time we prep for a worst case scenario. No, we did all that on our own, because we saw the threat. We saw the threat that was coming when everyone else was gallivanting around pretending like the news reporters were just gibberish. So shoot me now if I don’t just swing the door open when a fucking threat lands on our doorstep.’
‘You know…here’s what I don’t understand. You buy these hazmat suits, just like the ones these guys out there are wearing, but for what? So that you can have them sit around in the closet while you do nothing.’
‘No, so that we can be even safer.’
‘So why couldn’t you have just tossed one on and help Ed.’
‘Because I couldn’t help, Anne. If we’d gotten all dolled up in hazmat suits and headed over there, the only thing we’d be able to do is hold her hair back while she puked. We would have sat there and watched and you know what that would have led to? You know what watching leads to?’
Anne’s voice was a bit calmer and Stewart was clinging onto the hope that her attitude towards him would be calmer too. ‘What would it have led to, Stewart?’
‘It would have led to sleepless nights. Nights where both you and I do nothing but dream that we’re the ones hovered over a toilet seat and crapping our pants while we’re at it. It would have led to us driving ourselves crazy thinking that in a day or two, or three we’d be showing symptoms. We’d be running around this damn house in fear, not knowing what to do with ourselves.’
She was starting to understand. Stewart could see it in the way her head kept budging to the side, wanting to turn around.
‘Stewy,’ she said, still facing the window. ‘It’s just scary. It’s scary to think that something like this is happening and it has the potential to make us inhumane. You know that I’m not the kind of person to turn a blind eye…’
Stewart interjected, ‘I know that Anne, I really do and that’s what I love about you.’
‘But, I’ll have to, wont I? If it gets really bad, I’ll have to just sit here and pretend like the world is my enemy. I can’t show sympathy. I can’t look someone in the eyes and tell them that I care. Instead, I’ll have to stand behind a door and yell my feelings, yell concerns, hoping that
‘Anne,’ Stewart pleaded.
‘Yeah. That’s what I thought. You don’t want to hear just how heartless you were. Absolutely heartless. God knows, you’re not the friendliest person to begin with, but treating Ed like a burglar. Acting as though he was being an asshole for coming to you for help, that’s just downright cruel.’
‘I’m not a doctor, Anne.’
‘To hell you’re not. What would you do, put your patients in solitary confinement when they’ve got the common cold?’
‘Anne,’ Stewart pleaded again. He was wrong. There was something worse than her silence. The way she was breaking him down and making him seem as though he had horns protruding from his head was traumatizing. ‘I did this for us.’
‘Well you know what, Stewy?’ she hissed. ‘The next time, just think about you .’
‘There’s no just me in a marriage. So I’m sorry, I can’t do that and quite frankly, I’d do it again. If this happened ten times in a row, I’d always protect you. I’d always protect us.’
‘And if it happened to us… If we were the ones who needed to go knocking on someone’s door for help. What then?’
‘I’d understand. I’d fully understand if no one wanted to let us in. The entire city is in a state of panic and for a damn good reason at that. You know how many people have died from this thing. I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure that we’re not the next ones to end up six feet under. I’m putting us above all of them. No one’s fighting for our survival. No one’s making sure that we’re okay. Our stockpile didn’t buy itself. We didn’t go out and get hazmat suits because the government said it’s about time we prep for a worst case scenario. No, we did all that on our own, because we saw the threat. We saw the threat that was coming when everyone else was gallivanting around pretending like the news reporters were just gibberish. So shoot me now if I don’t just swing the door open when a fucking threat lands on our doorstep.’
‘You know…here’s what I don’t understand. You buy these hazmat suits, just like the ones these guys out there are wearing, but for what? So that you can have them sit around in the closet while you do nothing.’
‘No, so that we can be even safer.’
‘So why couldn’t you have just tossed one on and help Ed.’
‘Because I couldn’t help, Anne. If we’d gotten all dolled up in hazmat suits and headed over there, the only thing we’d be able to do is hold her hair back while she puked. We would have sat there and watched and you know what that would have led to? You know what watching leads to?’
Anne’s voice was a bit calmer and Stewart was clinging onto the hope that her attitude towards him would be calmer too. ‘What would it have led to, Stewart?’
‘It would have led to sleepless nights. Nights where both you and I do nothing but dream that we’re the ones hovered over a toilet seat and crapping our pants while we’re at it. It would have led to us driving ourselves crazy thinking that in a day or two, or three we’d be showing symptoms. We’d be running around this damn house in fear, not knowing what to do with ourselves.’
She was starting to understand. Stewart could see it in the way her head kept budging to the side, wanting to turn around.
‘Stewy,’ she said, still facing the window. ‘It’s just scary. It’s scary to think that something like this is happening and it has the potential to make us inhumane. You know that I’m not the kind of person to turn a blind eye…’
Stewart interjected, ‘I know that Anne, I really do and that’s what I love about you.’
‘But, I’ll have to, wont I? If it gets really bad, I’ll have to just sit here and pretend like the world is my enemy. I can’t show sympathy. I can’t look someone in the eyes and tell them that I care. Instead, I’ll have to stand behind a door and yell my feelings, yell concerns, hoping that
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