“What are you trying to do? Burn down the house?”
“Oh, crap, I was reading this post and lost track-”
“How hard can it be to heat two pieces of Pita bread on a stove? I swear, One of these days you’re going to-”
“It’s just a little smoke. It’s not like you’ve never burnt anything in here you know. Remember those stuffed peppers that-”
“Don’t even go there. And why didn’t the smoke alarm go off? That’s what I want to know.”
“Probably just the battery. It’s been-”
“Didn’t you just change them last week when we-”
“I didn’t get to it. We were-”
“Oh, for crying out loud”
Silence.
“Look, I’m sorry. I should have been watching closer, but I got distracted and burned the bread. I’ll clean it up and fix some more. Let’s not let my stupidity ruin the evening. We’ve not had a night home together for two weeks.”
Silence and a stare. Then a smile.
“It’s been three. Yeah, okay. I’m sorry too. Let’s just start over. We’ll eat, watch a dumb movie, and just be us for a while.”
“That’ll be nice. Maybe spend a little time just, you know, like we used-”
The doorbell.
“Well, crap.”
“Probably the fire department.”
“Smart ass.”
“You go take care of it and I’ll take care of the bread.”
“Yeah.”
“And on you’re way back, grab a battery out of the desk drawer for that smoke alarm.”
“Yeah.”
She tossed the cremains of two pieces of pita bread into the trash, brushed olive oil on two new ones, and put them on the iron skillet.
“I swear, sometimes I wonder how he gets through a day without somebody following him around to clean up behind him.”
She flipped the bread, lifted the lid from the pan holding the stir-fry, and mixed it with the wooden spoon.
“Water chestnuts! Damn, almost forgot.”
She got a can from the cupboard, opened it and dumped the contents into the pan giving it another stir to spread the new pieces around. Then she heard the front door close.
“Who was it? What were they selling at this hour?”
Silence.
She flipped the pieces of bread and turned them a quarter-turn.
“Don’t forget that battery.”
She opened the refrigerator and got the soy sauce.
“Mike? Did you hear me? Who was it? Hurry up, this is almost ready.”
She shook a half-dozen drops of sauce into the pan, gave it one more stir, and turned off the burner.
“Mike? It’s ready.”
She picked up the two pieces of nicely browned bread and put them on top of the stir-fry to keep them warm.
“Where is he?”
She walked across the kitchen and looked down the long empty hallway.
“Mike? It’s ready. Come on. We’ll pick out the movie later.
She walked down the hallway and saw the empty living room. She opened the front door.
Mike was standing on the top step, looking toward the street.
“Mike? What are you doing out here? Who was it?”
“Mike?”
She touched Mike’s shoulder.
“Mike? What’s going on? What are-”
Mike’s shoulders slumped as he leaned forward and fell, face-first, down the steps into the yard.
“MIKE!”
She ran down the four steps and grabbed her husband’s shoulders, rolling him over onto his back. His eyes were open but empty. His face was damp and pale. It felt like a piece of chicken just out of the refrigerator.
“MIKE! MIKE! SOMEONE. HELP!”
She rubbed his face, even slapped it not-so-lightly, cradling his cheeks in her hands. She began to feel dizzy.
“SOMEONE! HELP!”
She heard a neighbor’s door open and footsteps approaching.
“Elsa, what’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
Elsa did not respond to the questions. She heard the sound of the voice, but none of it made any sense to her.
“Elsa, did you hear me? Elsa?”
The neighbor noticed Elsa’s face.
“Elsa, are you okay? Just relax. Take a couple of deep breaths. Just breathe.”
Another neighbor arrived, this one a nurse. She saw Michael lying on the ground and Elsa sitting next to him.
“What happened?”
“I…I…” the first neighbor said, searching for the words in the strange fog of dizziness that had begun filling her mind.
The nurse bent down to look at Michael.
“It looks like it could be a stroke,” she said. “How long has he been like this?”
Silence.
Then she saw the faces of Elsa and the other neighbor.
“I’ll call for help,” the nurse said as she pulled out her phone.
When the 911 operator answered, the nurse tried to focus and respond to her questions, but the words were hiding from her. She stared at the object in her hand as she sat down on the ground.
The operator was able to identify the location of the phone, and the ambulance was there within four minutes. When the paramedics arrived, they found four patients in the front yard.
It had begun.