When the Song Ends

Before

I woke up to the sound of Jenny singing in the next room. She is like a personal songbird waking with the sunrise. I open my eyes just in time to see her blonde curls bouncing into the room, and she jumps on my bed. I tell her to bugger off, but secretly I love these early morning snuggles before the day starts. I pull her into my arms and smell her hair. My little sister. Equally a pain in my ass, but I love her with every fiber of my being.

She was a surprise. I had gotten used to being the only child. Though I think I secretly longed for a sibling, I thought it was out of the realm of possibility. My parents had struggled to have me, and they were seriously considering adoption before I came along. I started the third grade when my parents sat me down and told me that I would be a big sister. I imagined my little mini-me to take to the park and go for ice cream. I have straight brown hair and dark eyes like my dad. Jenny is all blonde and blue-eyed. She is graceful, and I often trip over my own feet. I liked to tease her and tell her that she is adopted. However, we both have the same nose and the same dimples. There is no denying we are family.

Jenny was my favorite person in the world besides my best friend, Riley. He would come over nearly every day after school, and we would do homework and listen to music. Riley lives down the street. We have been friends for as long as I could remember. I think we crawled to each other from our parent’s lawns, or that is the story our folks like to tell. All of my first memories contain him. When I was learning to ride a bike, Riley was there when I fell and scraped my knee. The day my dog, Hugo, ran away and Riley helped me look for hours around our neighborhood. I knew nothing could change the bond we had.

Then Jenny came along. Riley and I both welcomed her in as our own and became our little sidekick. We were like the three musketeers going everywhere together. We would pop popcorn and have movie marathons. Another of our favorite past-times was riding our bikes to the local pool on hot days to splash around and check out the lifeguards. These are the memories I think back on the most, before life as I knew it changed forever.

After

When I wake now, what hits home is the eerie silence. There is no more singing when I open my eyes. I lay there still, trying to hang on to a couple of minutes of peace from my dream. In my dream, Jenny is alive in the kitchen helping mom make pancakes, jumping in my bed, smelling like maple syrup, and getting my sheets all sticky. I know mom is trying to stay strong for us all, but I can hear dad trying to console her in the other room. There is now an emptiness in my heart. In all our lives without Jenny’s laughter and light, I feel so heavy and tired.

Nevertheless, I keep Jenny close to my heart. I wear a heart-shaped locket with her picture around my neck. I’m wearing it now as I head out the door to attend university. It is my single most prized possession.

Riley meets me down at the bus stop as we take the shuttle to our first course. We both are studying medicine. We do not talk about it, but I know deep down that we are trying to find a cure. The thing that can stop another family from losing their Jenny. Their songbird.

He takes my hand and plants a kiss on my cheek. I don’t remember at what point we went from friends to more than friends. It happened naturally over time, but I would say it was at Jenny’s funeral if I could pinpoint a day. The worst day of my life. We decided on a closed casket because I did not want to remember her that way. Riley was there and never left my side. Later at my parent’s house, he is the one who presented me with the locket. I cried and threw my arms around his neck. Then, he held my face in his hands and kissed me. It was sweet and gentle but filled with longing. Our kiss tasted like the salt of my tears, but in that instant, I recognized that with him - I was home.

Now we walk arm and arm, talking excitedly about the test we just took in Chemistry. I am sure that I aced it after locking myself up for hours in the library the previous weekend with all my notecards. Riley says he bombed it, but we both know that he probably aced it as well. Test-taking always came easier to him. I loathed him for it. I had such anxiety taking tests. I would rub the locket between my fingers and thumb for a little bit of luck in those times. Jenny was there to get me through it. I always thought of her as my guardian angel, keeping a watchful eye over me. Especially whenever I would see a field full of forget-me-nots or a bluebird chirping away at the park. I saw it as little signs that Jenny was still here.

What happened to Jenny is what has happened to half the population now. It was a virus of unknown origin. It came attached to a Virgin Galactic ship carrying the first group of citizens on a round trip from Mars. The red planet now carried an American flag. It was celebrated as a huge space win for the United States turned out to be our biggest downfall in history. Marovirus, as it became to be known, was deadly and spreading rapidly. It was airborne before we even knew what it was. Doctors and researchers were scrambling to find a cure before it wiped out half of the medical force to treat it. Those were the dark days in the beginning. The fear spread faster than the disease. People were turning on their neighbors. The pool we were so fond of shut down and turned an ugly shade of green from neglect.

Marovirus came knocking on our doorstep in the form of sniffles. Jenny was lying beside me in bed and kept wiping her nose on my comforter, much to my disgust. I was begging her to get a tissue until I noticed she wasn’t moving. I screamed for my parents to call 911, and we rushed her to the hospital. Jenny was having trouble breathing, and they put her on a ventilator. They allowed me to wear a hazmat suit so I could stay by her bedside. Jenny was in a medically induced coma. I prayed she would wake up, and I begged to hear her sing one last song. Ultimately, Jenny would never regain consciousness. I was too emotional to be there the day that they took her off life support. I vowed then that I would stop at nothing to find a cure. Jenny would want me to keep fighting.

Present

I came home from a long day of classes and plopped down on our old plaid couch in the living room. Propping my feet up with a soda in hand, I turned on the news, and that is when the words popped up on the screen – “Scientist in Utah has Discovered a Possible Cure for Marovirus.” I nearly dropped my Diet Coke on my lap while reaching for the remote. The blonde reporter went on – “We have new reports coming in that a scientist has discovered a possible cure for the deadly Marovirus. They plan to begin human trials in the coming weeks. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the number at the bottom of your screen.”

I picked up the phone and called Riley immediately. Could it be true? Do we have a chance to beat the virus for good? Riley says, “But who would be stupid enough to try it before the FDA even approves it? What if you grow fish gills?” I was about to laugh and nod in agreement when I heard him start to cough. He was the single most important person in my life now. I could not lose him too. Riley told me it was probably sinuses, but I felt he was not letting on how bad it was. That is when I made the split decision to pick up the phone and volunteer to be a part of the trials.

Within two days, I was about to board a plane to Utah. Riley was not able to come to the airport because he was running a fever. I was Face timing him from the waiting area when he asked me where my locket is. I reached up to my neck instinctively and realized that I had left it on my dresser. I could not get on the plane without Jenny – my little bit of luck. I dashed outside and hopped in a taxi. It was a race against the clock to get to my house in time to make my flight. With each red light, my palms began to sweat.

Finally, the taxi turned the corner, and my house came into view. I saw Riley come around the corner on his bike. I started to ask, what are you doing out of the house. Then he admitted that he didn’t have Marovirus at all. That something else is going on, but I did not give him time to explain. I slammed the door in his face. I was so angry. How could he joke about this when he knew what I went through with Jenny? I got to my room when I saw the locket sitting on the dresser. Even that reminded me of him. This world was not the one I knew. I willed my sister to be alive and to make things right again.

That is when I heard a knock at the door. I ran to answer it, thinking it was Riley, but when I opened it, I nearly fell to my knees in shock. It was Jenny standing there in front of me. How can she be alive? That is when the truth came pouring out.

Marovirus had been a big experiment to see how the world would handle a deadly virus. Our family was paid generous compensation to take part. My parents were in on it. They could not tell me because they needed the reactions of the young population to be as authentic as possible. My heart was racing, and I could not process what she was saying. How could everyone in my life be in on this lie? Then Jenny told me that our parents were not who I think they are and my life was in danger. Still reeling from all this, I grabbed her hand, and we decided to go on the run together. Jenny and I planned to expose the truth of the Marovirus experiment to the rest of the population at large. She knew the locations of some of the shelters hiding others who took part in the experiment.

But, I knew there was one last thing I needed before we go. I ran back to my room and grabbed the locket. It had gotten me through to this point, and I figured we would need a little luck where we were heading. No matter what happens next – I was happy to have my songbird. My Jenny back by my side.

The End