<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Quarantine, 1918</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">There were towns<br class="">
that knew about the flu before<br class="">
it arrived; they had time to imagine the germs<br class="">
on a stranger’s skirts, to see how death<br class="">
could be sealed in an envelope,<br class="">
how a fever could bloom in the evening,<br class="">
and take a life overnight.<br class="">
A few villages, deep in the mountains,<br class="">
posted guards on their roads,<br class="">
and no one was allowed to come or go,<br class="">
not even a grandmother carrying a cake;<br class="">
no mail was accepted and all the words<br class="">
and packages families sent<br class="">
to one another went unopened,<br class="">
unanswered. Trains were told<br class="">
not to stop, so they glowed for a moment<br class="">
before swaying<br class="">
towards some other place. The food<br class="">
at the corner store never came<br class="">
from out of town and no one went<br class="">
to see a distant auntie<br class="">
or state fair. For awhile, the outside world<br class="">
existed in imagination, in memory,<br class="">
in books or suitcases, deep in closets.<br class="">
There was nothing but the town itself,<br class="">
hiding from what was possible,<br class="">
and the children cutting dolls<br class="">
from paper, their scissors sharp.</span></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Faith Shearin</span></div><div class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div></body></html>