" Seriously, you need to get vaccinated. Just cuz they named it something silly-Cooties are nothing to mess with!" I pleaded with him desperately. I had had the vaccine, the side effects were terrible(temporary hair loss and weight gain), but the possibilitiy of actually contracting the dread Cooties was even worse.

" All right then," he began gingerly. “What does a case of the Cooties entail- if I don’t wanna be bald and fat for three months?”

“All your insides fall to pieces, and you’ll just sit there wishing you could still make love.”As I spoke tears ran down my face. I remembered the formless flesh of a fallen friend.

“All right Sweety,” he said, “I’ll get the shot tomorrow. As long as you don’t mind me being fat and bald… but as for tonight,” he reached for my shirt , as he undid my buttons strange things happened to his posture. His body went from virile and vertical to a shapeless fleshy mass puddled on the bed, still straining towards my clothes.

Too late, I thought. Too late again….