What's Really Going On?

​Yuri Balan sat in his rocking chair thinking about what the future was going to lay out before him. He had heard about the recent plague that had gripped North America and he worried about it hitting his region in eastern Alberta. There were all sorts of stories floating around the community about what this plague actually was and where it came from. The Ukrainian community called it a plague but the Canadian government said it it was nothing more than flu and nothing to worry about. Yuri thought about it as he rocked in his chair and wondered if he could trust the government. He had been told that the Canadian government was infallible but many years ago when he arrived to Canada he found out that this was not so. From the day that he stepped onto Canadian soil he had been lied to and cheated at every turn. He became a suspicious and paranoid man because of it. But now with this so called flu that was supposedly nothing to be worried about, Yuri asked himself why everyone was wearing these masks? And why were there so many people dying? It just didn't make sense to Yuri.

​He got up out of rocking chair, stretched out and then walked over to the window and looked outside into the darkness of a January night and wondered what was really going on in the world. He was told to stay inside and not go out so he would not get the dreaded plague. He had only been out once in the last year and that was to get supplies. Initially people were told that the flu was only supposed to last a month, but this was no longer true. Was it a mistake or had the people been lied to? And was this flu something much bigger that the government could not control?

He walked away from the window and started to pace the floor with his hands behind his back. As he paced he thought about many things. He wondered if there was a plague back in the Ukraine? He wondered how his family was, as he hadn't heard from them in months as all mail delivery had been cancelled. He shook his head as his mind started to race. No matter how hard he tried he could not shake the sensation that he was losing his mind and that he had been forgotten on his farm.

Then there was a knock at the door.

He walked over and opened it. There was a man standing in the doorway in a chemical suit with a mask over his face. Yuri was frightened at the man's appearance but hoped that the man had come to bring him good news.

The man in the doorway spoke, "Hello, my name is Death."

He then pulled off his mask and breathed on Yuri.