Christy Esmahan - The Laptev Virus

Besides, since the mice in C12 were control mice, it was not like they could contaminate each other with some dreadful disease. No, these were the “normal” mice, healthy and happy, to be used for comparison when researchers did experiments on the other mice from other rooms, so letting them have a little companionable time was of no consequence whatsoever. Still, in her heart of hearts, Molly knew that the researchers would not approve, so she kept her little secret to herself.

Molly walked to the correct rack and found the shelf and the empty cage where she could lodge the mouse for a few hours while she had lunch. Just before placing him in the cage, she examined him once more and he looked up at her with his perfectly round eyes and cute ears which laid back in complete trust. Although she didn’t usually pay much attention to individual mice, at that moment she felt a pang of regret and realized that she didn’t want to surrender the little guy to be put down. It simply wasn’t fair.

Instead of placing him in the cage, she walked over to the desk in the corner of the room and released him on the surface. She watched him sniff around, crawling over a pencil and nibbling on the corner of her notepad. Then something spooked him and he ran back to her gloved hand, sheltering in her curved palm. Her little penguin needed her.

She held him up, allowing him to crouch in her palm and examined him closely. He wasn’t perfectly white—there was a small light-brown patch on his left leg, which made it almost look like he was wearing a boot. Again he stared up at her with dark, trusting eyes that looked like perfect little black marbles.

“Aw, poor little thing,” she said softly, and looked furtively around to be sure that she was completely alone. She was. Without thinking too much about what she was doing, she slipped the mouse into the pocket of her lab coat and then strode out of the brightly lit animal room and walked across the hall to the changing room.

As she entered, her eyes swept over the rows of lockers where people stored their lab coats, backpacks and jackets. There were a couple of benches on one end, and a sink with strong-smelling antiseptic soap in the corner. The room was empty. Her heart racing, she strode to her locker and yanked it open. With quivering hands she surreptitiously withdrew the little mouse from her lab coat pocket and slid it into a mesh pouch inside her backpack. Then she quickly zipped everything shut.

“Hey, Molly, how’s it going?” said Kevin.

Molly’s hand jerked and she nearly dropped the backpack, but she recovered quickly and hung it on its hook. She had not heard him enter the changing room.

“Good,” she said, her voice squeaking slightly. She stuck her head back into the locker to cover her reddening face and pretended to be fiddling with her backpack.

“Did you get a chance to take that mouse to the Waiting Room?”

“I…” she said, and then cleared her throat and started again. “I put him in the cage back in C12 for a bit, but I’ll take him down to the other room right after lunch,” she said, trying to sound casual, and began unbuttoning her lab coat. “I’m meeting someone right now but I’ll be back right afterwards, if that’s okay?”

Even as she spoke she was making plans about what she would say if he asked to see the mouse now. How would she explain that it was not in the cage where she had said that she would place it? Could she maybe hold up a different mouse and say it was him? Would Kevin be able to tell that mouse apart from the others? Most likely he would not, unless he too had noticed the little spot on the mouse’s leg.

“Okay, I guess that’s cool,” he said, his gaze darting sideways. He removed his lab coat and pulled his locker open. Then he fished his cell phone out of his pocket and began scrolling through it. “Listen,” he said, his eyes meeting hers. “I probably won’t be back today. I’ve got a huge paper due tomorrow. So, see you the day after?”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice quavering annoyingly. She had to regain control of herself. She willed her arms not to tremble as she reached for her backpack and lifted it off its hook. She had already removed her lab coat and tossed her gloves in the bin.

“No problem. Good luck on that essay!” she said swiftly. Normally she would have been tempted to linger—Kevin was so hot—but today she knew that her face would betray her if she tarried even a minute longer. She slid her backpack gingerly onto her shoulder and hurried toward the door. As she pushed it open she met Tammy—was she following Kevin? Tammy gave her the usual once-over, but Molly just kept going. She could not risk that her little captive would make a noise or do something to give them away.

At home she told her mother the mouse story. “I’m thinking of calling him ‘Penguin’” she said.

“Well, if he’s a penguin, then I think Opus would be a better name,” said her mother, tenderly petting their new little friend. When she saw Molly’s puzzled look, she added, “Bloom County. It was a comic strip that I used to follow when I was your age. There was a penguin named Opus and he was great.”

At first Opus had slept in her canary’s old cage, since her mom had donated the hamster cage to Goodwill. But in just a few days her little penguin was part of the family, being set free more and more often. Her cat, which her mother had named Esmeralda because of her beautiful green eyes, had had kittens a few weeks earlier, and the whole family had been entertained, watching the tiny fur-balls when their mother allowed it for a few minutes each day. She was the kindest cat Molly had ever met. Certainly her cousins’ cats were not so friendly when they had babies, but this old Esmeralda shared her motherhood freely. Soon, even little Opus was playing with the kittens, to everyone’s delight. The weeks had gone by in a flash and Molly no longer worried that her small transgression of taking the mouse would ever be discovered.

Today, since it was his two month birthday and she wanted to do something special for him, Molly had taken Opus for a nice little visit to his old stomping grounds, back in the vivarium. He had ridden in her backpack, and he had behaved perfectly. It was the first time she had done something like this, and she was pleased that she had pulled it off without anyone noticing.

“Hey Moll-Moll, something’s wrong here,” said her brother.

“ Hmm? ” said Molly, her attention still focused on her computer screen. She had clicked on a series of Neanderthal links and was realizing that she was probably straying too far afield from the original assignment. She began closing some of the tabs, trying to make herself focus on the exam material.

“Moll-Moll, hey, looky here. This isn’t Opus. You’ve got an imposter!”

Molly took an exasperated breath. Little brothers could be so annoying when you wanted to get some work done! How was she ever going to finish reading the articles if he kept distracting her? She really had to concentrate or she was never going to be ready for tomorrow. “What do you mean?” she asked gruffly.

“Opus has a spot on his left leg, doesn’t he?”

Molly exhaled loudly, though her exasperation was quickly giving way to tingling pricks of fear. “Yes, you know that, Kurt, now cut it out! I’ve got to finish studying or I’ll fail this exam!” she said, feigning annoyance to cover her anxiety.

“But this one has the spot on his right leg.”

Molly’s eyes opened wide and she felt her face flushing with apprehension. She immediately swiveled toward her little brother. “That isn’t funny,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I’m not joking, I swear it! Look!” said Kurt.