Lovesick

Arrabella was silent. 
Barely eighteen years old, she had just been diagnosed with a life threatening 
illness. 
Countless doctors had poked and prodded her from top to bottom, and after 
endless months of tests, the results were in. 
Defeated, her parents dropped heavily in the chairs next to her bed. 

Every time Arrabella looked at her parents, she couldn’t help but smile. 
Frankly, she was thrilled with the diagnosis and wanted to shout it from the 
rooftops. 
Gently she grabbed her mother’s hand and stroked it, hoping the touch would 
somehow give her mother courage. 
Her father reached out and grabbed his wife’s other hand and wiped a sparkling 
tear off his cheek.

Inside her chest her heart thumped and pounded against her ribcage. 
Japanese honeysuckle climbed lazily up the trellis outside the open window 
sending waves of sweet fragrance that wrapped around Arrabella like an invisible 
cloak. 
Knuckles white, an intern placed a thick chart in the hands of the doctor, then 
stepped back into the shadows.

Little did Arrabella know, this doctor was formidable in his treatment of this 
particular illness. 
Most of his patients had had a complete recovery with very few side effects. 
Never had he seen a case he hadn’t been able to treat. 
Once again, he read the diagnosis to the family and prepared to give them all 
the information he could in order to treat, and destroy the illness.

Perhaps he hadn’t listened too closely to Arrabella, and was therefore shocked 
to the core when she boldly stood up and refused treatment. 
Quickly, an orderly grabbed Arrabella and shoved a needle in her arm to suppress 
any unwanted resistance. 
Running was no longer an option as the medication coursed through her veins so 
swiftly that Arrabella tottered, and then slumped to the floor.

Several things happened all at once. 
Two nurses appeared from the shadows and grabbed the parents, shoving them 
through a door that had, until then, been quite invisible. 
Under the direction of the doctor, the intern grabbed the patient and hauled her 
through a separate door from her parents. 

Voices, like gnats in summer, swarmed around Arrabella’s head as she was whisked 
into a room cradled gently against the intern’s chest. 

“Where am I?” she asked uncertainly. 

Xyloid panels adorned the walls of the room, and her mind began recalling the 
familiar grain in each of the panels surrounding her. 


“You!” she said as she looked deeply into her lover’s eyes, grabbing his face 
and pressing her lips firmly against his. 
“Zack, you saved us, you saved us! “