“Honey please stay away from that”, I told Tom, as I stroked his brown Hair.

Tom was my 8 year old son. Smart, brilliant and so much like his father, Jim. It’s been 6 months now since Jim passed away. He was a scientist at Thomson, researching on an infectious disease. He never brought Tom to his work because he said it was a bloody gruesome scene where he worked. Jim was found dead after an experiment he was doing, the whole lab blew up in million of shreds, along with him. I could see Jim, in Tom. It was like looking Jim’s reflection in a mirror. Same black hair, pale white skin, with brown freckles on his cheeks. He even shared the same interests; this is why we were here. He wanted to see the new museum installment they had made to the Thomson building. It was only for the scientist and the workers families. No one else was allowed.

They preserved the dead creatures they had experimented, they assured us that it was safe since they were dead they would not be able to infect people.

            “Would you mind if I visited the restroom, for a minute?” I asked Tom stroking his hair back.

            “Sure”, was all he replied back with a smile.

            “No mischief ok?” I asked him and he just nodded. And I was on my way to the restroom, located to the left of the museum

When I got back from the restroom, I saw Tom standing by the frog exhibit. The Frog was all white and pale almost transparent. You could see its dried veins which were black now. His eyes looked dried with black spots all over not only the pupils, with yellow patches on his white part of the eye. The amazing thing was no matter how much closer you got to it, it wouldn’t stink.

“Are you ready to go yet?” I asked him. Something was wrong his face showed a hint of pain.

“You ok dear?” curious as I was I asked him. Maybe he was just freaked out by the animals. I mean who wouldn’t be. He said nothing but nodded his head back and forth in agreement.

“Come on let’s get you home”, I said as I joined hands with him and I could finally see a smile light up on his face.

As I walked out of the front door, one of the guards greeted “ Thanks for visiting Ms. Mary”. I really don’t understand why they would need a guard here, what’s there to guard. Who would want to steal dead infected animals?

I switched on the light as we got home; my eyes fell on the clock which read 7:04. Boy, did we get stuck in traffic.

“Mom what are we having for dinner?” Tom asked.

“Marconi and cheese, sound good?” I answered. “Anything but your Tuna Salad” Tom said back, as I chuckled.

I started setting the dinning table, while Tom played on his play station.

“Ok Tom dinner’s ready”, I yelled out the kitchen.

“Five more minutes please mom”, Tom begged.

“Not today honey you have school tomorrow”, I answered. Tom begged a little more but finally gave in.   

Dinner was done and we were on our way upstairs to Tom’s bedroom. I tucked him in and kissed him goodnight. I was on my way to my bedroom.

I grabbed a novel and started reading, as soon as I knew my eyes were closed and I was fast asleep.

Some harsh noise woke me up in the morning. It was Tom.

“Tom is everything all right”, I asked as I tried to find my slippers.

I walked to where I thought the noise was coming from, Tom’s bathroom. There I saw Tom sitting by the toilet seat, holding his stomach tightly and vomiting. He would vomit every 20 seconds stop to catch a breath and continue again. I quickly sat next to him; I didn’t know what to do. My arms were really hot wait it wasn’t my arms it was Tom, whom I was holding. After 5 minutes Tom finally stopped. The reek was really awful and unusual not what you would expect. I cleaned Tom up and the bathroom and laid him on his bed. I quickly ran downstairs to get the thermometer; as soon as I was in Tom’s room again I inserted it in his mouth. After a minute or so, I removed it and saw that it read 101.4° Fahrenheit. My face felt in shocked I had no clue what to do who to call, usually Jim took care of this kind of stuff. He would know what medicine to give or what should be done.

“Guess you won’t be going to school”, I said in a weak voice.

I saw Tom’s eyes. They had little bags underneath, his nose was red, and he had droopy eyes. I looked at his arms he was holding on to his right one. He looked like his right arm was hurting. I simply lifted his left arm and saw what made me sick to my stomach.

“Oh my goodness, how did this happen?”, I asked Tom, who now had teary eyes.