Marigold by Heather Manheim (best books for 8th graders .TXT) 📕

people are we.” It took Davis aback, but she realized she should start trying to say that again if she didn’t want to alert suspicions. After she said it back, Duffy continued, “Nice to meet you. My name is Duffy, and I’ll be your doctor. We’re going to administer a basic physical and see where we are at with your health. Then we’ll make sure we catch you up on all your injections.”

Davis signed the intake form after verifying her name and ID number, and a strong sense of déjà vu overtook her as she initialed. She’d initialed before, of course; she knew she had, but now there was an odd sense from knowing something she shouldn’t know.

Duffy ran through the procedures that Davis was familiar with after a lifetime of having them done to her. Starting with the dreaded female check, although it made her feel better that it was with Duffy. She always felt so uncomfortable when she got a male doctor for those. Next, she went into the adjoined bathroom with a cup. After that, breathe in, breathe out while Duffy listened with a stethoscope. The doctor did her job, looking in Davis’s eyes, nose, and ears with a lit scope. Reflexes checked with a little rubber hammer. Then the questions: Had she felt ill at all? Where had she been kept? Davis and Duffy previously agreed on the answer: A room; she was unsure of the location or type of building. Davis explained they made her wear a hood in and out of the building. She added that they never let her outside, and she was always escorted to the restroom every time she needed to use it. Duffy said her lines with ease, “It’s good you were kept for the most part inside, at all times. It limited your exposure to the outside world and, therefore, dangerous viruses and germs. We’ll still keep you here for a few days since you interacted with these people who took you. But I think you’ll be fine.”

Duffy then had to administer the injections and a blood test; this was perhaps the only tricky part. She would give Davis a legitimate blood test and flu shot because they wouldn’t harm her, and it would help prove that she was being taken care of properly. However, the Marigold Injection would be saline, and an excessive dose of beta-carotene only, no pharmaceuticals or brain control chemicals. The beta-carotene was to give Davis carotenemia, a harmless condition that turned the skin a light orange color. It wasn’t the same gold hue that would generally be associated with the Marigold Injection, but it was all they had. Namaguchi, Brookshire, and Duffy had all received these beta-carotene shots in place of the Marigold Injection, and nobody had ever questioned it. But Duffy knew that a much tighter spotlight would be on Davis.

Davis was never fond of injections or blood tests in the first place. They always made her feel woozy. She asked if she could lie down, and of course, Duffy was okay with that. She lay down and tried to focus on other things. She was amazed that the uniformed hazmat orderlies were back in her room, sanitizing and cleaning the transport cubicle. She could tell they were trying to hurry so as not to be near Davis any longer than they had to be, which she thought was funny since there was no way for them to get infected by anything. “What happens after you leave this room, Duffy? I mean, the orderlies are so careful not to have any cross-contamination, but how do they manage after they leave? You always carry some kind of germs with you, don’t you?” Davis chuckled to herself when she saw the look of horror on the faces of the orderlies. Duffy raised her eyebrow questioningly as if to say Davis should watch her words.

“Well,” said Duffy. “There is a one-way door from your room to the offices of myself and the orderlies. When we walk out the door, we walk through an anti-bacterial and anti-viral gel that coats the shoes. Also, the hallway is flanked with blue lights in every direction. Then, we take a shower in the suit and then take another shower outside the suit. It’s quite extensive to keep everyone safe.”

“That is extensive. I can’t imagine that anything would be carried back to your rooms, after all.” Davis said, realizing the more she heard, the crazier some of these things seemed.

“All done, Davis, you good? Do you need anything?”

“I’m alright, thanks, Duffy,” said Davis sitting up.

“Okay, great. I’m going to run your labs. You have an entertainment console in here you can use. It has some movies, music, books, art you can look at, and card games too. You have an unlimited water dispenser there, in the corner. And a kiosk to get nutrition biscuits from; you are limited to three a day, though.”

Duffy looked around quickly, and when she saw the orderlies had left and nobody was around, she gave a quick, warm squeeze to Davis’s hand. Then she departed the room as well.

Davis didn’t do anything for a while. She just sort of lay on the bed and let her mind wander. She realized she would have several days just to think, so maybe she shouldn’t waste all her thoughts right now.

As she started to drift off to sleep, she wondered if Brookshire turned himself in for quarantine. Since the guard that brought her in took credit for it, Brookshire would be off the hook for getting quarantined. As if the fates intervened, at that point, Duffy walked in. “Davis, I wanted to let you know, Brookshire turned himself in for quarantine right after we checked you in. They placed him in a room down the hall, but I requested they move him to the room next to you. I said it’d be easier to tend to you both if you’re next to each other.” Here, Duffy smiled and looked