Loving Life

10. Oh my horny husband.

It's Halloween and I'm cleaning up the house before we leave for trick or treating. We're going with the whole band and their friends and basically the entire neighborhood. Carter left an hour ago to get to the store to get stuff for dinner. Everyone is here and I'm honestly cleaning because I'm worried. My parents are even here.

And that's when I feel it. the pain in my heart.

Carter? What happened to my baby?

I toss everything in my hands aside and grab my phone, worried.

"Roxy?" Mom asks. "What's wrong?"

I ignore her and call Carter.

He picks up on the second ring. "Roxy." He breathes.

"Are you okay?" I demand.

No answer.

"Carter?" I say, running my fingers through my hair, but stopping my left hand so it's tangled in my hair, my right hand holding the phone.

Then he sighs. "Something happened, okay? I don't know how to explain it really, but let's just say that I'm going to be gone for about...twenty seven days."

I start to pace. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't have a choice, Cinnamon. I'm so sorry."

"Carter, what happened?" I ask, worried. The pain in my chest increases and I look at everyone, who looks really worried, and then I slip upstairs and pace the hallway.

"See, at the store..." he takes a deep breath. "There was a girl and she...she had Ebola, and everyone that was there...we're being taken to Sacramento for twenty seven days-"

"But you got the shot." I insist. "And I thought it was twenty one!"

"I know sweetie, I know, but this is the first time someone has come in contact with the disease after getting the shot, so we're all getting taken to this place and we're not allowed to have any visitors to make sure that we won't get it. As for the extra days, they want to make sure."

"So you could get it?" I whisper, panicked tears welling in my eyes. "Carter,"

"I don't know. The doctors don't think so, but they can't risk it, and I don't want to risk infecting you and the kids."

"If they don't think so, why the hell are they doing this?" I ask loudly.

"I don't know, baby."

We're both silent for a long time. "That's over a hundred miles." I whisper.

He's quiet for a minute. "I know...but the bad news isn't over yet."

I don't move.

"See...they really don't want us getting infected so we each get our own apartment stocked with a month's supply of food and..." he sighs. "We have to take our clothes off and give them everything we have."

"Okay, why is that bad?" I ask.

"Everything, Cinnamon," he whispers, "That means my phone too."

"What?" I ask. "No, no, no-"

"Roxy, sweetie, it's going to be okay, alright? I'll be perfectly fine. I can make little signals for you. You can feel everything I do, right? Can you feel this?"

I feel the sensation of Carter's hand on his knee.

"Yes." I whisper.

"When I do that, that'll be that I'm fine and I love you." He says.