Madison’s World Redux: Episode 6

Cindy hated the idea of this. She knew that another option wasn’t present but that didn’t ease her mind. In her head, this isn’t how this would unfold. They would be enroute to the Hospital by this point. Madison calling for an uber. She felt confident that they would be able to bribe someone to get two dosages as hospital’s were filled with underpaid and overworked staffers. Surely one of them would jump at the opportunity for an easy buck.

The reality was quite sobering. Danielle the phone operator had shut down any attempt to take them to the hospital. More infuriating was that she didn’t believe them when they told her that they were immune. They were tested. The results came back. She had double and triple checked the names on all the paperwork as she was so paranoid. Any mistake had to have taken place at the lab.

“It must be a mutation or something. We were just the unfortunate ones who caught it early, “ Greg said aloud to Cindy as his mind struggled to make sense of this. He hadn’t heard of people who were immune to ever being infected before. It shouldn’t be possible from what he knew of how the virus worked. But he had to admit he stopped paying as much attention when he thought it no longer mattered to them.

“What is she doing up there?” Cindy said pacing back and forth on her kitchen table. From where they were in the kitchen, she couldn’t see any clocks. So, she was unaware how much time had gone by. It felt like an hour. She knew everything was time sensitive. They didn’t have an hour to give. They needed to be working on getting two dosages of that drug made by Generitech. It was the only thing in the world that could fix this.

A sense of relief washed over Greg and Cindy as they heard a door open and close upstairs. The footsteps of Madison bounding down the stairs were in this moment relaxing when on any other day they would be reminding her not to walk so loudly. She had always been a bit of a heavy walker. Neither quite understood where she got it from.

“Thank you so much Danielle. I don’t think we will be needing anything else tonight. Thank you for checking for my parents. I will be sure to let them know.” Madison said as she hung up the phone. “You’re welcome,” Madison said in a slightly annoyed tone as if they had done this to themselves just to inconvenience her.

“What did they say? Are we able to go to the hospital now?” Greg said talking so loudly it felt like he was shouting.

“No, they don’t have any of that medicine or I guess treatments as they called them available. They just needed a bunch of information to start the process of getting things put into my name and to get legal ownership over you both.” Madison said as she tried to put her feelings into words

“Madison! This is serious. You realize that don’t you? We need you to start googling if we can get some black-market version or maybe we just head to the hospital anyway. We can still talk to someone and pay them off.” Cindy said as her mind jumped from one possibility to the next.

“Danielle did pull your files. I guess there was some kind of mix-up in the forms that got sent, but if you had checked online you would have seen that you weren’t immune. So, I’m actually immune along with McKenzie and you two were vulnerable. They apologized for the mix-up in the mailed results.” Madison said looking down at her miniature parents. “Fine, let me look into this too. Since I have to do everything around here.” Madison said as she pulled up her phone.

“Princess, this isn’t easy for any of us. We all just need to come together” Greg said trying to come to terms with all this.

“I don’t see anything on the littlemart site, the petsmart site, I don’t see anything on amazon, I don’t see anything on ebay. They aren’t selling anything.” Madison said in an exasperated tone before setting her phone down, making sure her parents knew how much of an inconvenience this was for her.

“They aren’t just going to have it listed on a store page.” Cindy said shaking her head. “Madison, try calling Dr. Wilson. I’m sure she can help.”

“Yeah, about that…nope.” Madison said giving her parents a deadpan look.

Madison Grace Wessen,” Greg said, “You don’t talk to your mother like that.”

“I heard you both talking about sending me to that private school, South Academy. I told you I didn’t want to go there. I have friends and a life here.” Madison said leaning against the table as she looked down at her now miniature parents.

“Nothing was decided about that honey. We just talked about it.” Greg said, trying to explain the situation. As Madison had been having a few behavioral issues as of late. So, they had talked about sending her to a private school to humble her a bit and reign her in a little.

“I went to South Academy. It’s a good school. Better, then the public school you attend here.” Cindy added as she stepped forward.

“So, you had no plans to send me there, yet it’s a good school and I saw the brochures with your things when I was getting your Id’s and bank card.” Madison argued back.

“Bank information? Just what were you doing up there Madison?” Cindy said, raising her voice and tone like she had done a thousand times. Yet this time instead of the strong voice of displeasure to match her motherly glare. A much softer higher pitched tone of voice came out of her mouth. The chipmunk-like voice and tone were enough to cause Madison to laugh.

“I don’t think that’s going to work anymore, Mom. As far as the world is concerned, you’re an underbred now. You know what they say, judge a book by its cover.” Madison smirked.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Madison.” Cindy said

Madison replied in an annoyed tone, “I can’t help what other people do, Mom. They’re going to judge a book by its cover.”

“No, honey. It’s ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.'” Cindy tried to explain

“I think we all have said some things we don’t mean. We’re just on edge about this whole thing. Let’s just call Dr. Wilson and see where things go.” Greg said, trying to play mediator.

“Look, I get it’s not ideal for you guys, but maybe it’s time you just, like, accepted it. Just saying.” Madison said as she rolled her eyes a bit before aimlessly grabbing her phone.

“Madison, we aren’t just going to accept this. Look at us. We can’t live the rest of our lives like this. What would we even do? We could live in a shoebox for christ sakes.” Greg said “No, you need to call our doctor. She’ll help us out. You need to call Dr. Wilson princess.”

“Sure dad,” Madison said in a tone that made it sound like they asked her to do something outrageous.

“Nothing has changed Madison. You know better than to use that kind of tone with us. Your father and I have had just about enough of this, and this new attitude you’ve been flaunting for the past few months. It ends now. Pick up that phone and call Dr. Wilson. “Do as you’re told Madison” Cindy shouted in anger mixed with fear over the reality of being stuck like this.

“Or what,” Madison said quietly with a bit more attitude to herself as she grabbed her phone before walking across the kitchen opening the kitchen cabinets.

“Madison, Honey, I think we are all just a little worked up. So why don’t we just all take a breather and talk this over? Okay Pumpkin?” Greg said, trying to diffuse the situation once again.

“I was actually thinking the same thing, Dad.” Madison as she walked back across the kitchen over to her parents. Cindy craned her neck up unable to believe just how big Madison looked now. As she wasn’t ever what you would consider an imposing force until now.

“Wait, Madison,” was all Cindy managed to get out before a mason jar turned upside down was placed over Cindy. Greg looked over in shock as he saw Cindy pound against the glass. He could see her lips moving but he couldn’t hear her voice at all. A second later Madison dropped a second mason jar over him. Greg looked up at Madison’s now distorted body though the glass. He tried to lift up the glass, but the thick heavy glass of the mason jar was too much weight. As he pushed against the glass it barely moved.

“This is just for your protection. You know bugs and stuff. My uber is here. I’m just going to go out for a bit and get some supplies. You both can, as Dad put it, take a breather. I’ll be sure to give Dr. Wilson a ring while I’m out.” Madison said as she headed towards the door.

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