It seemed like the whole world was falling apart, what with the pandemic, large-scale protests and even riots, and just a general level of fucked-uppedness that made slipping into depression all too easy to do. And that's exactly what I thought was happening at first. I had been furloughed from my job and was sitting on my ass at home with little to do but read junk novels and waste time on the internet when I first started feeling run down. It was hard to get out of bed, completing even the simplest tasks seemed to take all my energy, and nothing really seemed important anymore. By the time the massive headaches and nausea started hitting me, I was already so weak and listless it was hard to even formulate the thought that I should call 911, much less follow through with it.
That was a huge problem, since I lived alone. I'd been proud of the fact that I'd been able to rent my own place soon after graduating from college, no longer having to deal with annoying roommates or watch how noisy I was getting with my girlfriend. I'd never been particularly outgoing, and because of my girlfriend I drifted away from my few college friends. When my girlfriend moved away to take a job across the country, I found myself more isolated than I liked to think about. When I became ill this turned from being simply sad to downright dangerous, since I had no one to force me to go to the hospital or even to cook for me. If I weren't such a bad son that I only called my parents every couple of weeks and visited even less often, they might have stepped in to help out, but I didn't even have that to fall back on.
That's how I found myself almost dying alone in my apartment at 26. Honestly, I have no idea how I survived. My fever was out of control to the point where I don't even remember a lot of what happened during that period. Occasionally I remember dragging myself to the sink and chugging water straight from the tap or sitting in the floor and eating canned ravioli straight from the can. I probably should have died, and I know that I wished I would just go ahead and do so more than once. But eventually I found myself waking up to sunshine coming through the window and realizing that though I felt like shit, I no longer felt like I might die.
As I forced myself up, I did realize that I smelled bad enough that I could easily be mistaken for having died somewhere along the way, and my teeth
felt
scaly and nasty. So I dragged myself into the shower, got clean, dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, and brushed my teeth. Still not feeling great, but at least beginning to feel a little bit like a human, I stumbled into the kitchen and drank several glasses of water as I tried to ignore the mess I'd made in the apartment while I was delirious with a fever. I was shocked when I looked at my phone and realized I'd been out of it for two full weeks, and then saddened to see that the only person who'd called during that time to check on me was my sister, Sandy. Deciding to call her back later, I set about trying to restore a little order to the apartment before giving up and sitting down to munch some dry cereal.
As I ate what little food I had and contemplated my mostly empty wallet, I thought I'd have to find out if my credit cards still had any wiggle room on them to pay for a pizza delivery when I heard a knock on the door. With a groan I pushed myself up and went to the door, peering the peephole to see two attractive, though primly dressed, women. Wondering who the hell they could be, I decided to go ahead and open the door.
One of the women appeared to be in her late 20s or early 30s and wore a simple dress that did little to show off what seemed to be a reasonably impressive rack. She had dark hair and was about 5'7" or so, while the younger one seemed to be in her late teens or early 20s. She was probably only a couple of inches over five feet tall. She was more slender than her companion was, and had sandy blonde hair. I was just noticing the cross hanging down into the hint of cleavage her modest dress and her small breasts allowed, when the older of the two smiled and said, "Excuse me sir, but have you heard the good news of or lord and savior, Jesus Christ?"
With a groan I realized that not even a global pandemic could keep religious nut jobs off my doorstep, and feeling far more tired and cranky than I usually let myself get with cute women under any circumstance—which is probably why these two were chosen to harass the neighborhood—I sighed and said, "Look, I don't have the time or energy for this crap right now, so unless you two want to go get me some takeout Chinese or something, I've got no time for you."
I'd meant it to be snarky, a way to brush them off, but the older one just cocked her head and said, "Sure—do you want anything in particular?"
I was a bit startled and said, "Feng's is down on the corner and has good sesame chicken."
They both smiled and the older one perkily said, "No problem!" They then both turned and left, heading toward a car parked a little way down the street.
I shook my head at the weirdness of all that, but wandered back to the couch without really expecting to see them again, which is why I was so surprised when they knocked again after only about half an hour. I opened the door with a scowl, but sure enough, the older one held up a bag from Feng's. It felt like a trap, and I thought maybe she had bought me some food as a way of weaseling their way into my apartment to talk about Jesus, but when the smell of the food hit me, I realized I was hungry enough to take the chance.
I stepped back and said, "Umm... come on in. Don't mind the mess... or the smell... I've been sick for a while." They smiled as they came in and I motioned for the couch and my single chair in the living room. "Sit anywhere, we'll have to eat in here 'cause I only have two chairs in the kitchen."
As they sat down, the older one on the chair and the younger on the couch, I noticed that they hadn't gotten any food for themselves. I also noticed they both had nice legs, but I was more focused right then on the food. I hungrily took it and sat it in my lap, quickly digging in as I realized that it was indeed sesame chicken. As I ate, the older one asked, "So, you never answered my question—have you heard of our lord and savior Jesus?"