A Small but Tragic Love (standard:romance, 669 words)
Author: hvysmker	Added: Dec 14 2003	Views/Reads: 3781/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Love among the Microbes, Love by the billions.

John's wife was preparing to fix something for his lunch box while he
got ready for work.  Seeing what she was doing he told her, in a 
cheerful tone, 

“Don't bother, honey.  I ate at the cafeteria yesterday.  I can eat the
old one today.”  When the noon whistle blew, he ate his old lunch of an 
apple, sone potato chips and two tuna fish sandwiches.  Unknown to 
John, he also ingested Jonah and Jezebel, two deadly bacteria. 

The two were unrelated and had never met, being in different sandwiches.
 She was Salmonella born in the mayo, and he was botulism, a child of 
the tuna. 

Jonah made it safely through the stomach and intestinal tract and
managed to get into the bloodstream at last.  He was just cruising down 
a capillary when he came to an antibody checkpoint.  It was manned by a 
large antibody. 

“Hold it right there sir.  Can I please see your ID?” 

“Sure, I've got nothing to hide.”  He passed it to the guard.  “I'm new
here.  Can you recommend  a good place for me to settle down?  I hear 
the pancreas is pretty this time of the year.” 

The antibody guard looked his ID over carefully, and pressed a button. 
Alarms started going off all over John's body, and antibodies raced to 
the area. 

“You're under Quarantine, Sir.  Please don't move or make a fuss.  We
have to contain you.” 

Jonah was confused.  He was sure he hadn't done anything wrong.  The
little germ hoped it would soon be straightened out.   He stood still 
and was soon completely surrounded by antibodies. 

A confused Jonah was led to the quarantine area.  None of his guards
would tell him what was wrong.  When they arrived, he found Jezebel 
there.  Comparing notes, they found they had been within two inches of 
each other for days.  She was as much in the dark as Jonah as to why 
they were quarantined.  They sat back and waited to find out what the 
problem was. 

It took all of twenty minutes, weeks in bacteria time, for an antibody 
officer to come over to interview them.  Time in which the to bacteria 
grew at first comfortable with each other, despite their different 
backgrounds, and finally very fond of each other. 

They found that they were alike in many ways and had many common
interests.  However, they still kind of shied away from contact, since 
they had both been warned by their parents, 

The officer interviewed Jonah first.  Jonah tried to protest his
innocence, but was shouted down by the antibody  Captain.  Finally, he 
was thrown back into quarantine. 

A little later, Jezabel was also called in.  She returned with a flaccid
expression, her cilia waving wildly.  A very agitated young microbe.  
Jonah rushed to comfort his friend.  He grabbed her cilia with his to 
quiet them.  With physical contact the two microbes felt a, sort of, 
spark between them and clutched each other in passion.  They exchanged 
fluid and, due to the excitement of the moment, began to fission. 

The two lovers became four lovers, which became eight lover, then
sixteen lovers.  It couldn't be stopped.  Alarms went off again 
throughout John's body.  He felt a little sick at first but quickly 
became sicker.  John had to go to the hospital, in intensive care. 

John finally died.  The doctors told his wife, “If it were only one
disease, we might have been able to save him.  With both diseases, we 
were helpless.” 

When the anti-bodies were finally overwhelmed by the first
1,000,000,000,000 lovers, Jonah and Jezabel escaped from quarantine 
and, making their way to John's mouth, escaped on a cookie John had 
been eating at the time. 

Of course, when blood stopped flowing and the intake of Oxygen ceased,
the billions of lovers also expired.  A sad end to a prolific love 
affair. 

Later, little Joe, accompanying his mother to see a sick Aunt, happened
to pass a cart in the hallway.  Among other things, it contained half a 
cookie.


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