I'm Still Sadie

S.A.S.

S.A.S.

I didn't know what else to do, so I left Tegan alone. She stared me off as I went, her puppy-dog eyes peering into my soul, letting me know that she would most likely spend the rest of her life sad.

But I couldn't afford to do that. I had to figure my way out of this conundrum I'd been thrown in, and that meant leaving the hospital I'd awoken in.

The elevator doors opened and an old man was wheeled out by a nurse. As he passed me, he let out three coughs, which was enough to make me shiver.

Tuberculosis. I bet he had tuberculosis.

His coughing echoed in my mind, its raspiness convincing me that me bursting into flames would be inevitable.

And with as much as I adored the idea of spontaneous combustion, it just wasn't happening. Nearly a minute passed since the man had exited the elevator, but I was still glued to the floor, feeling imprisooned in this awful place with all the germs... and the coughing... and...

I let out a screech right then and there, covering my vulnerable ears as I dashed to the restroom down the hallway.

I was going to die.

After throwing open the door and in turn, startling everyone inside the ladies room, I collapsed in front of the sink. For minutes on end, I scrubbed my hands clean with pink foamy soap.

I sung the alphabet in my head, but it didn't seem long enough.

No! I wasn't t clean yet! I had to keep scrubbing!

Once I had recited the alphabet a sixth time, I felt comfortable enough with turning off the faucet.

I stared at myself in the mirror, praying to goodness that I wasn't ill, and that my body back in Iowa was safe as well.

I had to check on my body. Now that I knew that I was missing, there was no telling what could happen.

I took a deeper glimpse at myself in the mirror, and well, I didn't look sick. But then again, this wasn't me, and how could I be positive? What if the boy I was today wasn't always this pale...

"Shut up," I told my reflection in the mirror, but its effects didn't last long.

What if I was already sick with an illness from when I was still in Iowa?

Truth be told, something had to be wrong with you if you were changing bodies everyday. I had discovered a whole new virus.

Or I was the virus.

It made sense to me. Entering people's bodies uninvited and leaving some minor damage, I was just like the human version of a twenty-four hour bug.

And while comparing myself to a disease was strange, it also gave me an idea for the best/worst pickup line ever: "Can I compare thee to a germ?"

It made me cringe, but I couldn't help but wonder if Dana would like it.

And with that aside, my virus needed to be known to the world, and the first thing to do was to name it.

I walked to the opposite wall of the restroom and snatched a bundle of paper towels from the machine.

Sadie Arlo Disease, I came up with as I exited through the restroom doors. Even though it was now the name of a disease, the fact that my name was in there gave me a sense of significance, like: "Look at me! I have a disease named after me. I'm better than all of you!"