Quarantine

Mayra Evans worked as the second under Chief Abraham Napier. She was a dedicated police officer and did what she thought was right. She stood in front of the small coffee shop that her high school best friend Ava Tailor from high school now owned. Mayra didn’t talk to Ava much anymore, but they were still kind to each other.

Mayra wasn’t sure how their friendship ended. It was like one day they just didn’t talk to each other about everything like they used to, and then they just slowly drifted away from each other in senior year. Mayra wished that she could bring herself to ask what happened between them, but she never did. Mayra figured it had to do with Stephen Tailor who was Ava’s husband and Mayra’s ex.

Ava was in her own world now with two kids and four dogs since her husband liked to hunt. Mayra couldn’t really fit into that picture, and not only that her husband was Mayra’s ex-boyfriend. When they started to date, Ava never mentioned anything about it to Mayra. She regretted it, but she didn’t know how her friend would feel.

Mayra looked over to see Ava staring at her. She gave her old friend a half smile before looking back towards the road. She watched Main Street like she always did over a cup of coffee. She had the newspaper sitting in front of her on the desk. She barely read it, but it was something to keep her up-to-date on events in the town like the upcoming candy festival.

Four Trees had three things that it was known for fishing, hunting, and candy. There was a small candy factory at the edge of town that sold candy only in the neighboring towns and Four Trees. The owners would have a little festival towards the end of September. Then during the month of October they would have a Halloween trail on the land next to the factory that was put together by the local high school drama class.

The whole town went to the festival and on the trails at least twice every year. Mayra had never found it fun, but she went to them nonetheless with her friends and boyfriend in high school. Now she went because the activities usually had to have the cops there to make sure everything was alright. It always was, but it was more of a just-in-case type of situation. Every now and then the seniors of the high school would pull a few pranks on the incoming freshman.

Mayra took another sip of coffee as the day went on. She looked at the newspaper to see that ‘The Fence’ had been finished. The town called it a fence, but having seen it, Mayra would say it was a wall. She continued to read about what they were going to do about the entrances. “They are going to have guards?” Mayra whispered under her breathe. She figured that they would post someone at the gates to watch and make sure nothing got in. It just seemed weird seeing it in the paper.

“Would you like another coffee, Mayra?” Ava asked, pulling Mayra out of her thoughts. Ava’s voice sounded shy and almost cautious talking to the youngest officer on the force now.

Mayra looked at her empty cup and nodded. Today was her day off anyways, why not have another cup? She watched Ava walk back inside to get her some more coffee.

“Help, someone,” an old man said. “Something has cut my face to pieces.”

Mayra looked over at a man who looked like he had escaped the nursing home down the street. She looked at his face as she walked towards him. “Sir, there’s nothing wrong with your face,” she said when she got close enough to him.

He appeared to be having a nervous breakdown. His hands were shaking, and he was sweating a bit. “There’s something wrong. Something came into my room and cut up my face,” he cried, looking at her. He was trying his hardest to get her to believe him.

Mayra pulled out her mirror that she always had on her. She never understood why she had this habit, but she did. She held it out to him. “See there’s nothing wrong with your face, sir,” she assured him. “Now, let’s get you home.”

She grabbed his arm and noticed the heat radiating off his skin. It was warmer than it should have been even on a warm day like this one. The summer just didn’t want to let go this year, and it seemed that it was going to stay around for a bit, burning the town.

“But there were cuts and blood. I could feel the pain,” he said, not fighting her as she guided him to the nursing home. “You have to believe me.”

Mayra said she did when she really didn’t. She just had to keep him calm. She couldn’t tell him that it might have been a side-effect from one of his medicines. Maybe it was from giving him two pills that shouldn’t mix. She knew that some drugs could do that, and there was nothing that they could do about it except find him a different drug with different side-effects.

She walked into the nursing home. The nurses were in a frenzy trying to look for the man that was escorted in by the young police officer. “Are you looking for him?” she asked the first nurse she saw.

The nurse looked like she just got out of college. She had short blonde hair. It barely came down to her chin. She looked at the old man and nodded. “I’m so sorry he got out. He didn’t cause any trouble, did he?” the young nurse asked.

“He was claiming that something attacked his face. He may have been having a hallucination from a drug you give him, and I think he may have a fever,” Mayra said. She didn’t know a lot about medical side of things, but she knew enough when it came to recognizing something extremely bad.

The nurse thanked Mayra and pulled the old man with her. Mayra didn’t stay long to see where she was taking the man. She just turned and left, heading back to the coffee house. She saw Ava standing by her table with a fresh cup of coffee in hand. Mayra explained what had happened as she sat down. Ava just nodded and walked back inside, not knowing what to say.