THE LAST VARIANT

Mary Anne hung up her cell phone and automatically left it on top of the counter between the dining room and the kitchen. Like a zombie she walked towards the sofa and fell heavily on it. No, it couldn't be. Camila was among “the damned.” Why her, why Camila, her Camila, who was barely thirty. How was it possible that she herself, who was already sixty-five, was healthy, and her little Camila had fallen ill?

She covered her face with both hands and wanted to cry, but the tears didn't fall, they were trapped inside, wanting to explode but not coming out, like a stagnant sneeze. She had to do something, she always did something when one of her children was in trouble, she helped them, and her help counted. She had taken care of her grandson when Lucas, her eldest son, and Claudette, his wife, had been detained for three months in Belgium, with the child temporarily in the custody of the authorities, until she managed to travel there and take charge. She had paid the past rent owed so that her daughter Antonia would not be evicted. Now she had to do something for Camila, she couldn't just sit idly. She looked for her cell phone and called Joe Louis, her cousin, who was a lawyer.

"Yeah, hello?"

“Joe Louis, it’s Mary Anne. I have terrible news, they took Camila.”

“Health Security?”

"Yes, they. Joe Louis, something has to be done”.

There was a silence. Her cousin ended it with the question he didn't want to ask, but which was key.

"Taft or Lambda?"

"It's Lambda, Joe Louis, Lambda, you see" - a sob burst from Mary Anne, who made an effort to hold back the ones she still had choking her on.

Lambda was the last strain of the virus, the fatal one. None of the vaccines helped against this strain. It had a higher lethality than hydrophobia, so far only one in a thousand infected people had survived it, death was practically certain. And it was the most contagious of the variants, worse than the Omicron two years ago. The authorities, desperate to stop its spread, had decided to create the places that they baptized as "Repose Rooms", but which everyone nicknamed "the gallows" and called the patients, "the damned". Those infected with this strain were housed there, and they did not have the right to visits by friends or relatives, not even descendants, parents or spouses. Only health personnel could enter, with their astronaut suits, bringing food and water and monitoring the deterioration of the patients. The luckiest ones would pass in forty days. Patients had the right to use the internet provided by the authorities for one hour a day, the hours were distributed among them by a lottery system. To avoid the constant drama that had unfolded during the first days, the cell phones were taken from the patients and only given to them at the assigned times. A specialist visited them once or twice a week, although it was of no use, his presence was more psychological than practical. If any country did not strictly follow these rules, severe economic sanctions were applied against it, and none of its inhabitants were accepted at the border of another country, whatever their circumstances. Take a small country like Chile, for example. There were already five hundred and forty-two of these “Repose Rooms,” and about a million and a half patients on them. As soon as a case was known, an armored ambulance hurried to pick up the affected person, along with a mattress and a set of sheets from the house, to transfer him or her to one of “the gallows.” Health Security would then put a police line around the house, preventing the departure of their cohabitants.

“I am afraid there is nothing that can be done, the rules are strict. Do the best you can with her communication time. And pray, Mary Anne, pray."

"No, no, no. I want to see her, even if it’s for the last time, it is not human that a mother cannot see her sick daughter.”

“That's right, dear cousin, it's not human. But it is the law. There are no exceptions."

Mary Anne burst into tears, her tears welling up. When she finally recovered her speech, she told her cousin the lawyer that she didn't have the strength to call Lucas in Brussels, or Antonia, who was up North. Her cousin told her to wait for him, that he would be in her house in a couple of hours.

Indeed, the man arrived in just over two hours at Mary Anne’s place. When he arrived, he found that Mary Anne had packed a suitcase and a handbag.

"Are you going on a trip?" - He asked after a long hug. A strange question because all trips had been suspended. But Mary Anne didn't reply, urging him instead to call her other children. Joe Louis did so, taking on the vexing task of breaking the bad news to them, and telling them that their mother was devastated and could barely speak. Afterward they sat down to tea, and Joe Louis was surprised at how serene his cousin was. It was as if she had been injected with a sedative. They drank in silence for a while, then she spoke.

"I'm going, Joe Louis."

"Where to, woman, you can't travel anywhere, all travel has been suspended"

"To be with her."

"What are you saying? It's crazy, and by law they won't let you in, visits are not allowed, they do it to stop contagion."

“But there will be no possibility of contagion.”

"Not even in an astronaut suit will they let you in, only health personnel can do it."

“You have not understood, cousin. I'm going in, but I'm not going out. That way, I won't infect anyone."[JB1]

Joe Louis was speechless for a minute, but then he tried to convince his cousin that her idea was madness and she was doing an unnecessary sacrifice. She argued back.

“You have to help me so that they don't stop me, I will sign any document that is necessary. I bring her some eight-herb tea bags, which are her favorite, and some of her favorite magazines. You must do it, I beg you.”

A heated discussion ensued. The man tried by all means to dissuade her, but Mary Anne's determination was insurmountable, there was no possible argument. At last the man gave up.

"I will speak with Senator Segura, he has weight with the State Secretary, to see if it is possible."

And so it was that a few days later, Mary Anne, after saying goodbye to her children and grandson through emotional video calls, entered Response Room 169, with her suitcase, her briefcase, her magazines and her eight-herb tea bags, to accompany her daughter Camila on her final journey. Destiny decided, in its constant roulette, to take pity on her, being the first to undertake the trip, one day before her daughter, already unconscious and in a coma.

(A casa de Jorge)

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[JB1]