The Disease

Today marks a very special day for me as its the day that I was eagerly waiting. Its my 21st birthday today and I have been waiting for this day for a very long time. I thought that after I reach 21 I would be free its not that I wasn’t free before all I did was a day job on a grocery shop and return home where I live with my aunt the shop a owned by her so it was a easy job. I left my studies after high school and started working at the shop as she was 70 and was sick a lot I thought that it my now my responsibility to care for her. Ever since I know Annie has been taking care of me we have always been together. I didn’t knew my parents only had a photograph of them holding me when I was a infant every time asked her what happened to my parents she used to say that they had died. I really didn’t think about it much cause she took really good care of me. Today on my 21st birthday more than me it looked like that she was more excited as if she was turning 21.

It wasn’t a party yet She was making many dishes since morning. The house smelled different that day it felt like a warm and loving feeling had surrounded me from every direction I was so happy seeing Annie doing so much for me. I never really had many friends I was like a lone person at school never talked to people much had a few friends only time I felt excited was when I returned home to Annie. I still remember that when I was a child there was not a single day that she wasn’t outside my school to pick me up I made me so happy seeing her everyday waiting outside my school. She used to wait there always before time waiting for me to get outside it was my part to going to school seeing her waiting for me there. I used to rush towards her and we used to go home talking about what I did I always asked for what is for lunch after we reach home. Today I was as excited as those seeing her this happy after a very long time usually she used to lay in bed and do some minor work around the house but today seeing her this active and excited and active I was very happy but was equally worried as well. I asked her not to over work herself and tell me if she needed any help she replied “It not everyday to see your little boy so grown up just relax yourself and enjoy your birthday”. Hearing her say that I just relaxed and thought about the good food I was going to eat today.so I went to my room to watch some tv while I was watching tv there was a knock at the door went to open the door there was Dr Sayid on the door. Aunt Annie had invited him over for my birthday he is like a family to us he has been with us for a long time and we never miss to invite him over on any occasion. Dr Sayid is originally from India and has been living England for a very long time I first met him when I was small might have been 3 or 4 at that time I was suffering from fever for many days and it didn’t show any sigh of going down so Annie had called him to check on me I don’t remember of that time much but it seemed like Annie and the Doctor had known each other for a very long time. My fever had gone down after a few day and I used to see him time and again he used to come to see aunt often as she got sick often I talked with time sometimes he was a kind of a serious person every time I saw him he was in the same clothes same serious looks in this eyes the same bag he has been carrying for years. Almost in all of his visits he used to scold Annie for working all the time at the shop told her to work less but Annie never used to listen as if anyone could stop her the next day she was already at the shop. Seeing the Doctor at the day of my birthday made me really happy I haven't seen him for like 6 month so he showing up meant a lot to me. Annie was also very happy seeing him there she told us to sit and catch up while she finishes cooking. Dr sayid had that same serious looks in his face as usual but somehow it seemed that today he was more tensed than usual the vibe he gave was tensing the whole room I couldn’t talk a single word to him and kept sitting there just staring at him. Sitting there in this tense situation I realized that the Doctor and I never had much to talk every time came here he talked to Annie and it was all.

While I was sitting there thinking now to break the tension Annie walked inside carrying a cake I was so relived that she came the tension in the atmosphere was suddenly gone when she entered the room she also brought other stuff from the kitchen there was my favorite apple pie that I had loved since the first time Annie had made it to me there was also fish and chips there was Elton mess she also had prepared Banger and mash. All the food that she had made looked so delicious I could smell every food and imagine what they would taste like while I was eating them I was very happy because although being sick most of the time Annie poured her heart and soul for the entire morning to make by birthday special.

Dr sayid said “you really did out did yourself didn’t you”. Annie smiled and said I

Want to remember this birthday for a long time even after I am gone. Hearing her say this it really hit me hard I had never imagined myself living without Annie I never really thought that one day she will be gone and I would have to live without her. I spaced out for some time and I heard Annie saying that you don’t need to worry because I am going to be around for a very long time and I not going to die until I see you get married to a beautiful girl. Hearing her say that made me fell a little less worried but I couldn’t ignore the thought that one day Annie will be gone but I thought that rather than thinking about what it will be I have to enjoy the birthday for with she had worked hard all morning I couldn’t show her my sad face to I thought about making the best of the time now. Dr sayid also said that Annie is a very strong woman and nothing is going to happen to her for many years. Those word form Dr Sayid meant a lot to because he has being taking care of her for a long time and her also had her do her MRI test at the hospital where he worked which showed that she didn’t have any major diseases just needed to rest and take care of the diabetes she would all fine. It was only three to us in my birthday and we were expecting no one else so it was not time to cut the birthday cake it was a Victoria sponge cake it was a two layer cake that was filled with jam and whipped cream it looked very tasty so without wasting any time I picked the knife that was placed beside the cake and cut a small piece of the cake and like every year I gave the first slice of the cake to Annie because of her health condition she was not allowed to eat too much cake so she took a small bite and fed the cake to me and gave me a birthday present which was wrapped and it felt like a box of some kind then I cut the other piece of the cake and gave it to Dr sayid he wished me happy birthday and gave me a present which was also wrapped. My guess would be that it was a book of some kind firstly I opened the present that Annie had gave me I opened the wrapper and there was a flip phone which are firstly launched the previous year and I had wanted it buy it for a long time and had saved money for it. I really liked new gadgets and this flip phone was the talk of the market nowadays so Annie must have knew that I wanted to buy that and must have given it to me. I told her that she should not have given me this expensive gift and I myself was saving money to buy it. She said that it my my birthday and I should be allowed to have what I wanted. I then opened the box it was a black phone with number and a small screen and as per the features it was able to send messages make and receive calls you could save numbers in there.

As I took the phone in my hand and was going to press a button I suddenly felt as my whole body was burning I could feel that every vein in my body were numbing I felt a pain in the chest as though something was grabbing it every organ inside my body felt like it was being tightly grabbed by someone. I felt all this pain at the same time so my head started to hurt I felt as though by vision was getting blurry and I wasn’t able to see anything that was going on but my mind played picture of all the moments that I had shared with Annie everything played in my head as though I was watching a movie I could see myself growing up all the fun stuff we did together i could see the vision for I don’t know some time and then everything went dark. When I woke up I was in a bed wearing a Johnny gown and I could see Annie asleep beside me. For sometime after waking I couldn’t understand what was going on I tired to sit up straight so I caught the metal holder on the side of the bed and as I caught it in my hand it broke off I thought that I was a old bed so I really didn’t thought about it and slowly it came to me I was having the best birthday of my life and suddenly I felt pain on my whole body I saw images flashing and I was black as I was beginning To grasp the whole situation Dr sayid came in he asked how I was felling I said to him that I was felling fine and have a little pain around the chest area.

His face was serious as always so I couldn’t grasp the situation much he called me to the other room so, I left Annie there and went with the doctor to the other room I was scared I didn’t knew what had happened to me it was my first time having a episode like that as we entered the other room Dr sayid said that he had run various tests on me while I was out. I asked him for how long I was out he said that I was for for almost 15 hours now I was very surprised I had never even slept for so long and now I was out cold for almost 15 hours It got me worried so, I asked him what was wrong with me. HE said that he had taken various x-rays of me did MRI scan and found nothing wrong with me i was relived to hear that but I could see the tension on Dr said face I asked that if nothing is wrong with me than I should be fine.

He said that “There is nothing wrong with you but there is something in you”. I could understand what he was saying so I asked him what do you mean by there is something in me I asked him to explain he said that there is something a parasite or some creature of that kind that was in my chest he couldn’t get a clear image of what if was through the MRI but said that there was something alive in there he added that this is a rare kind of condition or disease as might you can say it that only around 5 to 10 people have over a century and most of the people and doctors around the world don’t even know of its existence he said that this has been around for as long as human have been around in existence. I asked him that if this is such a rare condition and only a handful people over a century get it than how did he knew about it so much. He said that he was partner on research team on this rare condition

along with my parents he said they were a team of three including my mom and dad.

I was shocked hearing about this it was my first time hearing him mention about my parents I said in a great tone of astonishment “my parents "what do you mean by you were in a research team with my parents you never mentioned it before. He said that it was time I knew about my parents and he started talking about how he knew my parents and how he met them.

Me and your parents knew each other for a very long time they met during a research seminar of a Ebola and my parents had just started dating they three immediately became friend they were involved into research of rare diseases and virus and had worked together on many topics. It was during one of our research trip to Greece we went to and old library to gather on some article upon this virus they were following and there in that library your father Dr Davis stumbled upon a small article which seemed to be very old and seemed like it had not been used much it was about this creature like parasite that develops in the human body mostly usually around the lungs and only a few among the few suffer from this parasite in a whole 100 years period, There wasn’t much written on that article but Dr Davis was fascinated from it and for the next couple of years we travelled to various places to find out more about this parasite there wasn’t much that we could find on one seemed to know about it much we also sometime thought that this might not be real but Davis didn’t give up that man William Davis once he set his mind on something he didn’t give up easily it must have me that reason that your mother loved him and was stuck with him. For some time we went from place to another and form there to the next place. The only information we could find about this fascinating illness was what I had just told you. We traveled together for some time then I got a job offering in England which was to good to miss out it was then when I parted ways with your parents I insisted that they stop their research and return home for some time but William said that he was he was going to return home when he found everything to know about this illness it was as though he was obsessed with this and its was all he could think about I even asked your mother to convince him to take a break for some time but Amelia said William is not going to stop until he finds the truth about this illness and she was going to stay with him until the end. I said my goodbye to them wished my good luck and came over there but I still regret about not pursuing them a bit harder to return with them to their home. After I came to Birmingham I started my work here I used to get calls from them now and again in my landline they used to say that they were still researching about the same illness most of the calls were about that they were still on that topic over the phone I used to tell them to stop and return home but they never listened and one day I got a call from Amelia telling that they had made major findings and they were now close to find out the truth of this illness. I was very happy for them the calls continued `for some time in one of the call Amelia mentioned about you she said that had a boy and they had named you Edward they were very happy about it. I thought that now with their baby and a breakthrough in their research they were going to come home soon and finally have some time for themselves but I was so wrong the call stopped coming after a while I presumed that they were busy with their work and with a new baby their hands were full. I to then started having a busy time at my work at the hospital one day after I had just reached home after a long day of work I got a call I picked up the call and it was Annie she was your nanny at that time she said that Dr William and her wife have not been home for more that two months and they had told to call this number I case something happened to them she said that she was calling from Italy so. I immediately went over there it was then I saw you for the first time Annie was holding you she looked very scared I told that I was the person she had talked to in the phone she said that your parents were not home for more than two month she didn’t knew what to do she was confused but I looked at you and saw that you were so calm you might have been just over seven months at that time. Annie was holding you and your were there like a small cub clinging to her mother so clam thinking that if anything were to happen she would give her life to protect you. I told Annie we should wait for a couple of days and see if they returned but a month passed and your parents didn’t return I looked around asked the local people whether they had seen and heard about your parents they said that it was months ago when they and seen Dr William and her wife. I couldn’t find a single clue about where they and gone I even searched their home all I could find was a Research paper which seemed to have been written by your father it was about the illness that he was researching the paper was only about 4 page long it seemed as though there was more to that paper I searched around the house but couldn’t find the other missing pieces I guessed that your parents might have taken it with them where ever they were. What I learned form the paper that they had left behind was that this parasite takes about 20 years to fully develop during its developing period the host of this parasite does not feel anything everything feels at if it was normal once the parasite is fully developed the host starts feeling pain around their chest the pain means that it is feeding of the host body this type of parasitic infection are only known to affect human and chances of getting it are extremely low. In case a person is found infected by this than the host is known to live for the next two years. For the next two years the parasite is known to consume the host slowly and can’t be removed through any procedure and the attempts to remove it by force causes the certain death of the person.it is also known that the person infected by this have all of their senses to function at a much more higher level which is known to be caused by the fluids that the parasite releases inside the host body. After the fully development of the parasite the host after some time can experience their senses working at a very high level the person can see tiniest object with ease hear sound from very far it is also known to produce strength at a much more rate than a normal human can use. During the initial time it can happen at any moment and cause a lot of pain and discomfort to the host but after some time these boost of senses can be used at will as the boost adjusts to the illness and can trigger the parasite when to produce the fluid but the more fluids it produced the hosts body degrades at a more rapid rate so it is best to keep the parasitic fluids from generating at a rapid rate. This was all that was written on the paper that your father had left behind I wish that he has left more of the research behind so we could know more about this illness and could determine if there was any way to reverse this.

After waiting for more than a month and not finding anymore of your father research I decided to bring you back with me. Seeing how happy and clam you were with Annie the first time we met I asked her that if she would come with me and take care of you until your parents came back or until we hear anything about them. As it seemed like Annie also didn’t wanted to leave you alone with me she agreed to come with us. We waited for very long time to hear from your parents but we didn’t get any news so Annie decided to raise you on her own she got herself as own place started running a grocery told you your parent’s had died and the rest you know how it went.