Beware the Plague

Nope.

I haven't been quarantined for showing signs and symptoms of the dreaded H1N1 flu. At least not yet. Though I have a nasty suspicion that I might have battled a milder variant last month.

Probably should have placed myself in voluntary seclusion then.

Alas a rising number of cases - and a worrying trend of increased mortality rates - have driven quite a number of patients to the hospital in seek of medical treatment. And also a healthy dose of assurance.


Damn. Am I quarantined?
Of course I didn't realize that the increased presence of such contagious patients would brand the hospital as a forbidden no man's land in the unschooled eyes of the citizenry. No doubt on the naive assumption that a virulent, infectious miasma surrounds the hospital grounds threatening to inflict disease at twenty paces.

Hence the reluctance of the laymen to set foot within the undesirable environs. Without our knowledge, we'd been unwillingly turned into pariah outcasts.

So you can imagine how difficult it was to have my purchased items delivered.

Worker : And where would you want the goods delivered, sir?
Paul : At the hospital?
Worker : Mother of God! You stay at that accursed place of death! Unclean! Get thee away from these grounds!
Paul : What are you talking about?
Worker : You have come with the plague! An abomination!

Talk about persona non grata. I might as well have been an untouchable.

But seriously, these huge strapping fellows refusing to dump a couch at my quarters behind the hospital? All because of twisted misinformation? Even after my earnest, detailed explanation on the disease - which took the better part of an hour - the fearful workmen refused to budge.

And all the while they stood at least three feet away from me. Think they were minutes away from running for protective gear. No doubt they decontaminated the entire area after I left.

Ridiculous.

I should have sneezed on them.