Dead Weight
The careful voice belongs to people who have been handed a sheet of paper and told to keep advertisers calm.
"Health officials are monitoring a cluster of cases involving a novel respiratory illness…"
Maya lowers the spoon.
Novel. Such a clean little word. New, but not frightening. Interesting, almost. A word wearing a lab coat and sensible shoes.
The first time, she heard it while packing lunch for work and thought, poor people. Somewhere else, someone else, some problem that would be explained by Friday and forgotten by Monday.
This time, the word moves through her like a match dropped into dry grass.