I was back, but I wasn’t exactly back. It might have been the stress of the move and the strangeness of being only half here that caused me to succumb to the late-spring virus that had been felling the general populace.On awakening, I noticed first a strange taste in my mouth, metallic and foul. Next I noticed that my skin was crackling and hot, then I became aware that my head was full of sharp stabs, and finally, as I came fully awake, I felt the dull pressure of phlegm in my chest and throat. I fell back into bed. I had no time or patience for influenza. I had fallen asleep determined to do many things in the coming days, but now none of these things could happen until my immune system had killed the intruder. I was forced to cooperate by spending the morning in fetal position under the covers, then panting hotly on top of them, then shivering under them again, then sweating and clawing at my shirt to get it off and throwing the blankets from my burning near-carcass, then collapsing into my wracked chilled flesh and clinging to the bed as if it were pitching on a stormy, cold sea.
