What is stomach flu?
It was right in the middle of the night. She hoped to fall asleep soon so that 6 am wouldn’t seem so daunting to conquer. She had things to accomplish before 9 am. Then it was time for the commute to work.
When it hit 1 a.m. she felt discomfort in her body. Thank god she didn’t know what time it was until she went to the loo and came back. Or else she would have been stressed out because of the hours lost. Good night sleep was important to her. Maybe one of the reasons she couldn’t attain it right away.
It’s not that she stayed very late; maybe midnight, sometimes later or earlier. But it did affect her sleep cycles for lately opening her eyes to the cold mornings was more so challenging.
As she got back to her bed, she sensed something odd. No, please don’t be true.
She tried to go back to sleep. Her eyes were still open. A light on her right side-it was her sister up on the phone. She couldn’t imagine how one could sacrifice a peaceful, warm dream to the blue light of technology. Eyes. Her sister’s eyes couldn’t be less honoured.
3 am. There was definitely something wrong. Another reason to head to the toilet. This time slight nausea accompanied her. It was awful.
She remembered the moments she thought of someone else; the idle moments she wasted for the people who didn’t have much to do with her existence. She laughed at herself over and over, at her weaknesses that made her vulnerable not only to the matters of the heart but also to longings of the body.
She went back to her bed. She wanted to give her body some rest. She understood that this was not going well. Then the final indicator came: she belched. It was not an ordinary belch, it was so familiar she recognized her among thousand belches she gifted the air.
That was it. She knew the symptoms. She hated the trouble. Turning on wifi to see exactly what she could do with her nocturnal guest was not an option; she didn’t want to make matters worse for her family with all those bloody waves of the internet.
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So she waited and waited. Until the next attack landed. This time she was unprepared.
She rushed out of bed, covering her mouth with her hand. It was a necessary gesture to prevent an objectionable flow of internal waters. She made it to the toilet and for the first time in her life, I suppose, she let them both go.
It was a hard decision to make. Why on earth would it happen to her? And if it did happen what she had to do with it? To wake up mom? But she worked so hard during the day so why ruin her moment of silence for a cup of tea, sugary drink or magic medicine.
No, it was all not worth it. She could handle it alone, in the bathroom, together with her sickness and paper towels.
She used one to wipe her vomit from the ground. It was not the most disgusting thing to do. After all, it was a product of her own body.
The sensation of a liquid flowing up her inwards in the hope of release was so easy to imagine and hard to endure. She fought against the persistent impulse of her body. It was a wrong thing to do. And she had to pay for it.
The bathroom light was dim. Now, it was far from dire night and closer to the misty morning. Loneliness crept in together with crude remorse. A dangerous idea. She prayed to be normal again. She wished so much to be her old self. She couldn’t stomach even the word of food. How on earth was it ok to eat so much when you were not hungry? How disrespectful towards own body. She promised she would nourish her body only when it asked for it. And mayo? Who invented that disgusting thing? How could the food be almost the centre of her life? How could she even plan what to eat for the day?
Such a petite soul.
Before covering herself with a blanket she turned on her phone, kissed goodbye the alarm clock and let herself sleep for 2 hours more. Or maybe for only 2 hours.
This is how stomach flu hit her and so she experienced the first unpaid leave of a lifetime.
