Wade - Late August
The sun was shining, and the most extreme heat of the summer was finally dissipating. Having something good and hearty for dinner on a night when the nausea wasn't hitting him, seemed like a fantastic idea. Wade ordered and walked to the café a few blocks away. It was one of his favorites, but he hadn't felt like walking all summer, and it felt oddly too close to drive. The mask he was wearing had mostly become second nature.
Wade put in his earbuds for the walk and turned on some cheerful, upbeat tunes for once. He was feeling less weighed down by the fight. Whistling to himself as he walked wasn't normal anymore, not for some time since everything seemed more challenging. The air felt cool and noticeably less humid than it had been in months, since before the diagnosis.
As he turned the corner toward Melodia's Taqueria, his vision was involuntarily tugged from his target to a bulky, tall man. The jerk grabbed Wade's face mask and pulled with a sharp yank. Wade watched as his N95 sailed several feet away and landed in a gutter, suspiciously full of indescribable muck even a week after the last rain. One of his earbuds clattered against the hard cement and bounced across another puddle onto the asphalt of the parking lot.
"Pussy! Are you still scared of the virus!?" A hulking man was red with rage as he screamed at Wade. The spittle and pathogens were caking Wade's face as a blast of foul breath made him cringe.
Wade tried to take a breath and go through some of the coping mechanisms his counselor had taught him, but this jackass had gone too far.
"You dumb motherfucker! Do you think me wearing a mask is impinging upon your freedoms? How is someone else wearing a mask forcing anything on you?" Wade was done taking shit off anyone. He was trying to enjoy a pleasant day, but the idiot had earned his ire.
"I'm trying to free you from being scared. You worried that the China-virus is still going to get you?" The man smiled proudly like he had done Wade some immense favor.
He badly wanted to deck the man, but an iota of self-preservation was intervening, holding him back. "Asshole, I'm being treated for leukemia! I have cancer, you stupid motherfucker! I would like to get some dinner without catching a cold and dying, if that's not too much to ask! It's not all some grand conspiracy against you."
Since he had gotten sick, Wade's patience had frayed to non-existence. He was seeing a therapist as part of his treatment, but this was too far.
"Whatever, you're just a pussy." The ignorant man chuckled, but, at least, he had taken enough steps back so his saliva wasn't speckling Wade's face, and he couldn't smell his horrid breath.
"Yeah, I just lost all my hair to inconvenience your dumb ass." Wade pulled off his ball cap to reveal his bald pate and lack of eyebrows. Aggressive chemo had robbed him of both.
"Maybe you just like to shave your head." The idiot wasn't getting the picture.
"And my fucking eyebrows?" Wade glared at him with anger and incredulous disbelief in equal measure.
No one can be this dense, can they?
"You'll thank me later." The man grunted with two middle fingers extended before he turned to get in his obnoxiously tall, lifted truck parked across the only three EV charging spots in the strip mall. There was a belch of sooty black as the man pulled away. Wade wondered what parts of the Bible were being referred to by the plethora of decals on the back window because it wasn't anything he had ever encountered in church.
The Golden Rule isn't 'be an asshole to your neighbors.'
"Fuck." Wade sighed. He tried to gather his calm from his discombobulated state. Taking some deep breaths, Wade first ventured to grab his wayward earbud. His hand cradled his now-marred earbud which was emitting a new painful screech as he delicately pinched a clean spot on his soiled mask. He would not leave it littering the sidewalk.
That'll teach me to enjoy a walk.
He deposited the N95 in a bin.
Should I go home?
Wade debated internally. It had been forever since he had mofongo, and Melodia's had the best in town.
I should have ordered online and had it delivered.
He'd already ended up in the hospital with a secondary infection once during his multiple courses of chemo and radiation.
If I'm going to catch something, the idiot yelling in my face probably already supplied plenty of germs,
Wade reasoned before he stepped into the restaurant. His stomach growled and decided for him. When he was hungry, he had to take advantage. He'd lost too much weight and strength during his treatment already. He'd been in the best shape of his life before he got ill, finally shedding his scrawny image. That was quickly returning, though along with it came a pasty complexion since he rarely got outside these days.
"Hello, Wade!" welcomed the friendly proprietor and namesake of Melodia's. The restaurant was a local institution named after the woman when she was just an infant by her parents. They'd since retired back to Puerto Rico to take care of Dia's grandparents and left the woman the café.
"Hey, Dia. It's been a long time."
Wade had a crush on the beauty back in high school, but they had never been in more than an English class together, and he had been so socially awkward back then. A memorable research project in the class prodded a renewed longing. At the project's end, Wade summoned enough courage to ask her to prom. Dia had sweetly rejected him by letting him know that she had accepted a date with the man who would become her husband. An N95 mask concealed her best physical feature, her smile.
Tight black curls were escaping from her ponytail that was corralled by a bow with a pair of prominent flags interwoven in the accessory's fabric. Dia had always been immensely proud of the state where her parents had raised her and the territory they had come from. The twinned flags adorned several spaces in the restaurant as well. It was a fetching contrast to her cinnamon-colored, seemingly flawless complexion.
Dia stood almost half-a-foot shorter than Wade, not because she was particularly short, but because Wade was several inches taller than six feet. She was lithe other than her round bottom and a perky, large set of breasts. Her warm, brown skin was mostly hidden by a mask and the long sleeves of a fetching lightweight, pink jacket over the jeans and T-shirt that was the taqueria's official uniform.
"I heard. I'm sorry, Wade. I saw what happened in the parking lot." There was a flash of awkwardness in her eyes.
This is why you can't get angry. You never know who's watching.
Wade considered and tried not to get discouraged; he couldn't undo what he did in the parking lot.
"Did you want another mask?"
"Please," Wade confirmed with a nod, as he hid his humiliation. He'd been hoping no one had seen his outburst.
"The team is trying not to track anything back home. It doesn't seem to bother many, but the few that complain are vociferous."
