Viral

By Andrew Adams

-

Sami was picking at the hem of her skirt and leaning back in her chair, the phone propped on her shoulder so that she could listen to the senseless ramblings of her best friend Julie, when Michelle wandered into the room with a sigh and said that she was about to die.

"Hold on a second, sweetie," Sami said.

"What did you just call me?" Julie asked.

Sami giggled. "Shut up, doofus. I was talking to Michelle."

"Aw, let me talk to Michelle!"

Sami paused, thinking a moment, and then gave up and handed the phone to Michelle. She took it in one small hand and lifted it to her ear, moaning slightly as she did. "Hey, beautiful!" Julie chirped, like a bird who's just eaten from a birdhouse laced with speed. "How ya doin?"

Michelle hung up.

"Michelle!"

"Sami, I don't feel good."

"Come here, baby." Sami held out her arms, and Michelle plodded over into them. Sami lifted her up in her arms and began to rock her. She was getting heavy. "What's the matter?"

"I've got a headache."

"That doesn't count," Sami said. "You've always got a headache."

"But it's really bad!" Michelle said, moaning.

"Alright, you want some Tylenol or something?"

Michelle nodded, and Sami started off into the house. It was large and it was all hers. She found it hard to brag about, though. She'd been in college for two months before she finally turned eighteen, and she agreed to meet her parents at a local restaurant for a birthday dinner. Their deaths were their fault. Her father had taken a turn too sharply, hit the rumble strips, swerved, and spun out off of the highway. The car had rolled over twice and the ceiling had completely collapsed. Her mother was killed instantly. Her father lasted two days in Greater Baltimore Medical Center before he stopped breathing. They'd left her everything: their money, their house, their daughter.

And now Sami, nineteen years old and an undeclared sophomore, had sole custody of her little sister. Life insurance was paying the baby sitter and, it seemed, little else.

Sami carried Michelle through an empty hall, clumsily flicking a light switch with one elbow, and into a bathroom. Propping her up on the counter, Sami opened up the medicine cabinet and rooted inside. She pulled out a round bottle of Advil, fumbled with the top, and beat it against the counter. "I hate these damn child-proof caps!"

Michelle looked up slowly, her curly red hair falling over her eyes, and reached out for it. Sami handed it to her, and she opened it easily. Sami took the bottle and cap away from her, slid a pill into her hand, and gave it to Michelle. She started to fill up a cup with water when Michelle said, "Pudding."

"What?"

"Pudding!" She held out the pill insistently, and Sami stared at it curiously. And then she realized what Michelle was asking.

"Alright, let's go get some pudding. What do you want, chocolate or vanilla?"

Michelle didn't answer. Sami lifted her and went back to the kitchen, and when she slipped Michelle into a chair, she wiped a tear off her cheek. "I want to go to a doctor," she said.

"I'm not taking you to a doctor," Sami told her as she pulled out a package of pudding from the refrigerator. "We've already been three times, and every time, you know what they say?"

"They're wrong!" Michelle cried. "They're stupid! I want a new doctor!"

"No, Michelle, they're doctors. They know what they're doing." Sami emptied some chocolate pudding into a bowl and started to crush the Advil. "We're not going back to the doctors, alright?"

"But it hurts so much!" Michelle was crying.

"Stop whining." Sami slipped the Advil into the pudding, mixed it, and turned around to Michelle. She was lying face-down on the table, not moving. "Get up," she said. "Don't do this to me." But Michelle didn't move. Sami slid the bowl of pudding beside her and sat down.

"Michelle?"

Sami reached over and prodded Michelle. She rolled lifelessly. "Michelle!" Sami skidded over to her and lifted her up. Her eyes were closed, but she was breathing. No smile. "Michelle, stop it!" But her body didn't change, it didn't change at all. "Michelle!" Sami slapped her, her palm smacking against Michelle's cheek, and she immediately regretted it. Except that it didn't affect Michelle at all. She was still as limp and lifeless as the dead.