The Living Carrier

This wasn’t luck. It wasn’t goodwill or a miracle of God’s grace anymore. It’s way past that now.

This was different.

This wasn’t normal.

The revelation would destroy her.

Wuhan, China

“Excuse me, can you take a picture of us, please?”

The brunette smiled in response, extending her hand as Ava handed over the polaroid.

“Closer, a bit more”, the woman said as Ava and the other woman giggled into random poses. 

“Is your hat gonna fly off, Ava?”

“Why are you playing with your hair, Ruby?”

“Say cheese!”, the brunette smiled.

“CHEESE!!”, they chorused.

“Thanks a lot! Love you!”, Ava smiled, grabbing the freshly printed snapshot, which popped out of the polaroid.

All of them had contracted the disease except for her. She was certain that it was the brunette, hating herself for asking her to take the photograph.

All of her friends had recovered.

The polaroid has never been touched since.

New York, USA

“Professor, is it true that the coronavirus was made in a lab in Wuhan?”

“I am assuming that you are an anti-Communist”, Ava replied, invoking ripples of laughter across the hall.

“What’s your name?”

“Davidson. Arnold Davidson”

“Mr. Davidson, that is far from true. For many reasons. To start with, any virus which had the ability to enter an organism will not be man-made. In the case of coronavirus, the spike protein which armatures on the outside of the virus is used to penetrate the outer walls of human and animal cells. Another conspiracy theory states that the spike is artificially created. Quite convincing considering RBD, Receptor-Binding-Domain, which is a hook that grips onto the receptor of human cells. I wonder which virologist is breaking his sweat to attach a hook to an unknown virus”

After the laughter dies, she continued: The hook shows traces of genetic engineering which has been ruled out with the discovery of the same mutation in other organisms. The theories are endless. As of yet, take all this with a pinch of salt.

“Professor, would anyone be resistant to Covid-19?”

Ava pondered for a moment.

“Good question. But do you think he would reveal his resistance to the world? Let me admit, no one wants to be a guinea pig, but it depends a lot on his ethics and conscience”

“Isn’t that selfish?”

“We are deviating from the topic here and ethical questions don’t clarify as doubt, but in my opinion, I wouldn’t call it selfish”

Most of the crew who had worked with her tested positive, except for a few of them, including her.

Ava still found it ironic that her lecture on ‘Covid-19: Myth vs Reality’ at Baruch college had been the reason for the sudden spurt in cases in the locality.

Manhattan Midtown

Face covered with a mask, Ava picked up some apples and examining the quality, dropped it to her bag.

“Hey, Ava!”, a cheery woman waved up to her.

“Carrie!”, Ava gasped, resisting the inclination to hug her.

“Strange times, isn’t it? Will do with a handshake”

Reluctantly, she stretched her hand.

That would be the stupidest thing a microbiologist would have ever done.

To her utter amazement, everyone who had turned up at the market on that day was called for rapid testing.

Negative again.

Ava took that as a recognition for her efforts to keep the virus at bay.

“How are you doing, Ava?”

“Fine, Jack. I am just bored”

“Why don’t you move in with us?” he asked, fiddling with the mask that hung from his ears.

“Thanks for asking, darling, but I don’t think Grace would be too happy with that”

“Oh, come on. It’ll be fun for her too”

“Let me think about it”

“You said that last week, too”

“I am still thinking”, Ava chuckled.

“Well then, gotta go home. The door is always open. Even for crappy biologists”, Jack grimaced, pulling the mask up to his face.

The news shook her. All her brother ever did was come over to see if she was fine. But the neighbors created a racket, ranting on and on, a cascade of lies, misinterpretations, and misunderstanding. Some of the conspiracies were so risqué, that Ava decided to move out.

Her brother convalesced, but his one-year-old died.

“I have no idea where I had contracted it from”, he moaned into his hands.

She extended his hand to comfort him but quickly pulled it away.

“I’m sorry”, she said, sprinting across the hall to her BMW.

Somehow, all of this wasn’t right. For days, she remained locked up in her room, crying to herself, surviving on only water.

Jack was her fault. She recalled him saying that he hadn’t gone anywhere else, justifying the reason for removing his mask.

So, was it her? But the test results revealed she was negative. All the testing kits can’t be faulty.

“Why are you pissed off at not contracting it?”

“I am not pissed off. I am just bewildered. It’s…”

“Luck, pal. You got extra doses of it”, Loya replied.

“It’s not luck”, she mumbled, shaking her head.

“Said something?”, Loya asked, turning a corner, ambushing the splendid evening, with the slow rumble of her car.

“Have you heard of anyone who’s immune to Covid-19?”

Loya smiled wryly.

“Ava, don’t be so naïve. If anyone was immune to the disease, do you think he’s gonna reveal it? Unless he is insane of course. None with the wish to live would do that”

“He will face a dilemma, won’t he? He could help others, but at the cost of his life. What would you do, Loya?”

“Honestly man, I would try my best not to reveal it”

“Thought so. But you will have to face the consequences. Knowing you could help the people; you chose to stay away from it. But at some point, you will have no choice”

“Hark who’s talking! The Good Samaritan”

Both of them giggled.

“What do you mean I will have no choice? At what point?”

“Tell me, Loya, would you not give yourself as a guinea pig for your loved ones?”

“Ava, let’s talk about something else”, Loya replied, careering across the streets of Manhattan, past the lights and the glittering shops, through the once lively street silenced by the pandemic; a gust of wind shaking the world, taking with it millions, proliferating fear, dread, anxiety and grief. Like a thunderbolt slashing through the Earth. The omniscient Earth had been vanquished, by a microscopic organism. How mortifying!

“I don’t feel good about this possibility. What if—what if I am the one? This is not a coincidence. It’s not”

“You are watching too much of Stranger Things”

“Shut it, Loya. You are such a pain in the a**”

“Since when did you become a valetudinarian?”

“Last night. Not that you give a damn”

Loya pulled the car over.

“What is wrong with you, Ava?”

“You are what’s wrong with me, Loya”

“Okay then. Goodbye”

“Goodbye”, Ava shut the door behind her, walking back home.

Ava was at the hospital, awaiting PCR test; she was the only person who had visited Loya and her Mom, who is now in intensive care, relying entirely on life support systems.

What if Loya told the doctors about her immunity?

But maybe she was not immune. Only one way to find out.

She covertly entered Loya’s ward.

“Ava?”, she mouthed. “Why?”

“I am not infected, Loya. I am not. It isn’t me”

“Mom is dying”, she whimpered. “I can’t let that happen”

“Loya, please, no, don’t please”

“Don’t be so selfish, Ava!”, she scowled at her.

“Loya, please”, she held her hand.

“Get away from me! You told you’d do it for your loved ones! Was that a lie?”

Ava rubbed her eyes with the same hand.

Her hands shivered when she received the results.

It was negative.

Eyes blurry with tears, mascara smeared over her face, her hair disheveled, she drove home, fully expecting health officials at her door.

Pulling out cards and papers, she analyzed the graph of the spurt in COVID-cases across the world. There was something common in all of them. A thread connecting all the stories.

The horrific truth.

Don’t be so selfish, Ava.

Closing the door, with one last look, she rode the BMW for the last time to her brother’s house.

Sticking a note on the door, she left.

If the scientists could unlock her genetic code, she can salvage the world from an impending pandemic.

No matter what the tests say, she had the virus in her blood; how it evaded the tests, she had no idea.

She is a living carrier.

All she could do was give up.

Five years later

“Your aunt too was a hero, Ben”, Jack smiled.

“Wow! What was her superpower?”

“Courage”

“That is not power”, he snarled back.

“It is. She saved the world from a pandemic”

“Who is Pandemic?”

“Ben, your bus will be here any moment!”, Grace called out. “Put on your shoes now, quick!”

“I will tell you later”, Jack said, his voice drowning in loud cries.

Jack walked up to the bedroom, picking his six-month-old daughter from the cot.

“Goodbye, Dad!”, Ben said, hopping down the stairs, to his bus.

“Bye, Ben!”, he shouted back.

“Grace, Ava’s hungry”

“I’m coming”, Grace walked up to him and took her from his arms.

Jack walked up to his room, pulling the note from his table.

Jack, it was me all along. I am terribly sorry for his death. I know it means nothing, but I was helpless too. The laws of biology don’t make sense anymore. I have somehow acquired immunity against Covid-19, but the virus is in my blood; just that it’s not showing up. Which means I would keep infecting people without knowing. I can’t stay here anymore. If they could discern the secret to my immunity, millions of lives will be saved. 

I am sorry for everything that I have done for your family. I could have moved in, but now, thinking back, it would only prove fatal. Thank you for everything you have done for me. 

Love you tons, Jackie! (Only if I could hug you)

The Crappy Biologist

PS: Please wash your hands with soap for twenty minutes and do sanitize too.