Chap. 1: Stalk (Part 2)
“Here is the answer”.
Dr. Shimizu jerks in his hand a sheet just snatched away from the printer, while moves his piercing eyes over each of his colleagues, sitting around the conference table.
“Doctor Ongawa” says to one of them, “you were almost forced to discharge this patient, despite showing no signs of recovery, isn’t it?”
“Why do you think” replies the aforementioned one “she has not died, too?”
“She has not been admitted to any hospital again. I consulted to my friends at other hospitals, but none of them has received anyone with that name”.
“I am not surprised” Dr. Ongawa says. “You should have seen her husband, boyfriend or whatever. Sure he was one among those fans of witch medicines. I bet now he is crying at her grave. Poor girl!” he concludes, shaking his head.
Then, Dr. Shimizu leves the record on hand on the table. As if thinking aloud, he says:
“I was so worried about this case that I managed to get a confident whithin the city council, who is aware of the death registry. And, no data”. He focuses back to the infectious disease service doctors. “I must insist: Kaoru Mitsuki is alive. She was the first one infected, so she knows the cause. Maybe her boyfriend knows the treatment”.
He sights his colleagues again.
“We must get Miss Mitsuki to be subjected to the tests to know how she healed. We have to achieve the Ministry to ordain the epidemic alert”.
Another doctor smiles in disbelief.
“An epidemy? No one has shown that an infected one had spread it to no one”.
“Yet” another doctor replies “everyone were assaulted or torn by a person or an animal, fantasy left aside”.
A soft laughter runs through the table. All of them remember the story of the huge poodle or the squirrel as big as a bear. Although they did not mentioned that the forensics confirmed such an authorship, regardless of the size.
* * *
“ ... And beekeepers are baffled by the progressive death of their bees. What rare disease is leaving our stores without honey, natural wax, and any of the products by these animals?”
The curiosity of this news makes Gonza to leave momentarily quiet the meal and the vegetables literally in his hand, while the TV screen shows a beehive, and no insects buzzing around.
“We do not know if they die”, says a beekeeper to the camera. “No bodies. They simply disappear, as if they taken away by the wind”.
Gonza reminds he has got honey for a whole year and stops worrying. Surely whe he needed it again, the problem will be already solved. He focusses again on the preparation of the tempura”.
“The mysterious plague” the TV journalist goes on, “has begun almost simultaneously in different parts of the archipelago, denying the possibility of a single focus. So, is there anyone deliberately spreading it?”
Kaoru enters into the kitchen and heads for the china cabinet.
“Wait a moment, my lady”, Gonza warns her “the dishes are there, next to the sink. I have not had time to put it there this afternoon”.
The girl takes them to the dining room for dinner.
“We have taken some samples to the lab”, another beekeeper says on the screen, but there they have assured us that bees are healthy”.
A reflex makes Kaoru to watch the television. And she remains there, stunned. But she recovers soon and goes on with her work. The butler asks himself why, suddenly, he has the feeling that has appeared a horror.
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