The Baby Project *unfinished and discontinued*

Chapter Eighteen

I looked at Lilly's mother as tears streamed down her red face. "I trusted you with my daughter, now she's sick." Her words were strangled and barely audible. "They said because of her young immune system she might not make it. The influenza is strong and they haven't seen it much before." She said, gasping after her sentence.

"Im so sorry, we didn't mean to get her sick." I replied, placing my hand gently on her shoulder. She gave me a hard stare back, before she slipped away and walked down the nearest corridor. Mrs. Holler looked at me sadly, "Poor woman." She said. I simply nodded in return, a feeling guilt welling up inside me.

Suddenly a nurse came over to us, holding a clipboard firmly in her hands.

"Excuse me, are you Maya?" she said, looking at me intently. I furrowed my eyebrows, didn't nurses usually greet you with your last name?

"Um, yes, yes I am." I said back, confusion welling up inside me.

"Tyson was asking for you-" she went on, but I cut her off.

"He's alright! Oh my gosh, so he's fine? He's not like going to die or anything, he's actually fine?" My words came out in a rush, I felt my heart well up and my spirits were immediately lifted. He wasn't going to die.

"I'm sorry, but I wasn't able to finish what I was saying." she said sternly back, and I instantly felt butterflies explode into my stomach. Mrs. Holler had now turned around and was listening intently to the nurse.

"Tyson has contracted something that we haven't seen much of, and he's not in the best condition. This disease is something we were trying very hard to control, but now that Tyson has it.." she seemed to loose her words, and was looking at us sadly. For some reason, I knew what she was going to say next.

"Tyson has ugonjwa, he passed it onto Lilly and it's very possible that anyone he's come in contact with today has it as well. I'm sorry, but it's for your best interest that we admit you, both of you. Please come with me."

I understood her, but faintly. Tyson had ugonjwa. The ugonjwa that had been all over the news lately. I knew what it was, but I didn't know it was possible for us to get it here. And what made it was, I had a huge chance of having it as well. I didn't repeat her, I merely followed her. It was strange how she didn't seem to care that she was with us, because if we did have ugonjwa wecould easily pass it onto her.

The next few hours seemed to pass in a blurr. Mrs. Holler and I were taken to seperate rooms far away from other patients, we were draped in a white gown and had a million doctors visiting us by the hour. Tysons, or Lilly's name weren't mentioned again, it was all about how I was feeling.

The doctors questions ranged from, "Have you been feeling nauseus recently?" to "How much contact did you have with Tyson?" I answered them robotically, truthfully. "No, I haven't been feeling Nauseus," to "Quite alot of contact."

I was jabbed and prodded with needles. I was faintly aware that my mother was outside the room, peering through the glass window. People weren't allowed in, it was one of the rules. The doctors that did come in had suites on, to stop them from attracting the disease. It was like we were aliens.

Eventually, they had prodded me and poked me until they were finished. I was left alone for a very long time, the only company was my mother who was outside the room. She looked in at me sadly, worry filling her glassy eyes.

"I'm fine." I mouthed to her more then once, but was I really? No. Tyson was probably going to die, Lilly was probably going to die, and I was probably going to die too. The universe just had to let that be the end of my tragic life story. I was going to die from ugonjwa

Eventually, a doctor came to check on me once more. I didn't know what the time was, there was no clock in the room. It had occured to me more than once that there was nothing in the room. A bed, medical equipment, and that's all. And everything was white, and there was that disgusting hospital smell that seemed to stain everything.

"How are you feeling?" The male doctors asked me, looking down at the clipboard in his hands. I sighed, "Fine." was all I mumbled. It was true, I wasn't feeling sick, I didn't have a headache, I was fine.

"Good, good. We don't have your results yet, they should be back by tomorrow. Until then you cannot come in contact with anyone and you must rest. I will speak to you more later on." He turned to leave, but I leant out and grabbed the sleeve of his suit.

"How's Tyson? Lilly?" I whispered, looking through the mask he had on his head. I saw him shake his head, "They're...okay. We'll know more tomorrow."

I nodded, letting his sleeve go. When he exited the room, I saw my mother pull him over. They were talking, then something changed in my mothers expression. She started to cry, and started to yell at him. The walls were so thick, I didn't here what she was saying. But I had a feeling in my gut that the doctor had lied about Tyson and Lilly being fine. Either they were both dead, or one of them was definitely dead. Either way, I started sobbing. How did this get so screwed up? I was just doing a project with Tyson, a stupid school project and somehow we had all caught this stupid life-threatening disease, well maybe not me, but I didn't know for sure yet.

"Stupid life, stupid feelings." I muttered, that was my new catch phrase.