Lost Immunity by Daniel Kalla (best free ebook reader txt) 📗

“Here we go…”

“In 2000, we eradicated measles in the States. Not a single case reported that year. This year alone in Washington, we’ve had three deaths from it.”

“And what about all the suffering and death among the healthy kids who got the vaccine?”

“Aside from a few sore arms, what suffering?” Lisa says, raising her voice in spite of herself. “Massive population studies have shown over and over again that the MMR vaccine—like all the others—is safe.”

“Studies done by the same doctors who peddle the product.”

“Doctors and scientists all over the world are in bed with Big Pharma, is that it?”

“You don’t need to sound so condescending,” Amber huffs. “It’s not so simple. I’m not saying doctors are all corrupt. Just that you’re biased. You’re spoon-fed a pro-vaccine agenda from your first day in med school. And most of you have drunk the Kool-Aid.”

“We’ve drunk the Kool-Aid?” Lisa slams her glass down on the table hard enough for the beer to slosh out. “That’s rich. Show me a bigger cult than theanti-vaxxers! Besides, what the hell would you know about what is or isn’t taught at medical school? You and Allen run a weed dispensary.”

“Nice, Liberty!” Amber folds her arms across her chest.

Her sister’s body language aside, Lisa knows she’s touched a nerve. Lisa legally changed her name from “Liberty” when she was nineteen, and Amber only calls her by the childhood name when she’s irate. “I’m sorry, Amber. Didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s been a long day. And maybe I get too amped up sometimes. But I’m an epidemiologist, and vaccination is a big part of my life’s work.”

Amber only stares at her, unappeased. “As usual, this is really about Dad, isn’t it?”

“Not this old chestnut.”

“It’s true. Your whole life you’ve been rebelling against him. From your choice of names to the career you picked. Like almost every other decision you’ve ever made. It’s all been one giant ‘fuck you, Dad!’ ”

“Uh-uh,” Lisa says. “True, I spent a bunch of my early years trying to escape his clutches. But once I did, I haven’t looked back.”

“You expect me to buy that?”

“Don’t care. I’m just glad I’m free of it all… his megalomania, his conspiracy theories, his imagined slights, big and small. He’s sick and you know it.”

“Was sick,” Amber stresses. “He got treatment.”

“Got treatment? The state troopers had to drag him onto that psych ward in handcuffs.” The unwelcome memory of her first day visiting her father on the locked mental-health unit floods back. His scraggly beard, wild eyes, and nonsensical ramblings. Lisa was twenty years old and hadn’t seen him in two years. She felt genuine empathy then. Love, even. Suddenly all his erratic behavior and the progressive withdrawal of their family from society made sense in light of his diagnosis with bipolar disorder. She visited him regularly in the hospital, and for a few months, there was a thaw between them. Affection, even. But it fell apart soon after his discharge. Maybe his mental illness explained the extremes of his behavior, but even once he was stabilized on medication, he remained the same obstinate, self-absorbed, and closed-minded man he’d always been, characteristics that his disease accentuated rather than caused. And after Lisa enrolled in medical school, a move that her dad viewed as a betrayal of his belief system and all he had tried to teach her, they stopped talking altogether.

Dispelling those thoughts, Lisa asks, “How’s Mom?”

“She’s OK. Would be nice if you found out for yourself.”

She chose her husband over her daughters, Lisa wants to say, but she doesn’t have the appetite for any more conflict today. “Yeah, I’ll call her soon.”

“She’d appreciate that.”

Lisa can’t tell if there’s sarcasm in her sister’s voice, but her phone rings and, happy for the distraction, she answers.

“Hey, Lisa, sorry to bug you,” Tyra says in an unusually somber tone.

Lisa already knows why her colleague must be calling, but all she says is, “What’s up?”

“Three more meningitis cases were reported late this afternoon.” Tyra hesitates a moment. “And another death.”

CHAPTER 9

Kayla doesn’t know where she is. It’s been dark forever behind eyelids that refuse to open. She can hear muffled sounds, though. Electronic chirps and beeps, the reassuring words of a kind woman who hovers near her head, and, of course, her granddad’s voice. She’s never heard him talk so much. Or sound as concerned. Kayla can feel the pokes of needles in her arms and the roughness of something down her throat. But she’s so groggy.

Have I been drugged?

The only comparable feeling in her life came right before her wisdom teeth were removed, when the doctor was counting backward from ten as the milky-white anesthetic ran into her arm. It feels the same now, except she has been stuck at one forever.

Her head still throbs. And her skin still burns. But the fear is totally gone, replaced by a calmness that borders on serenity. And her body is getting lighter by the moment. As if she’s about to float off the bed.

Rapture.

Sirens are sounding. The wailing grows louder and softer simultaneously, as if the same fire truck is approaching and leaving at the same time.

“Don’t leave us, Kay!” She hears her granddad’s faint yell from what seems like miles away.

Her little brother, Thomas, somehow appears out of the darkness. He’s still three years old and clutches the yellow toy bulldozer that he used to carry everywhere. When he grins at her, his front tooth is still missing.

And then Kayla sees her parents. Her dad is laughing as he sweeps Thomas up into his arms and waves to her. Despite her mother’s loving smile, tears stream down her cheeks as she extends a hand to Kayla.

“Hang in there, Kay. Please. You are all…” But the rest of her granddad’s words are swallowed up by a sudden vacuum.

It’s time for Kayla to join the rest of her family.

CHAPTER 10

Lisa is hoping to slip out of bed before Dominic stirs, but