Meltdown at Buffalo Bayou

Abeza Simmons was like any other 20 year old when the virus first showed its ugly head....Any other 20 year old who was sold by his birth mother for her fix. His MOTHER, Ivetta purchased Abe at a roadside motel that she happened to visit by chance. She had dreamed of having children, even before she had came to the realization of who she was; at 15 Ivetta, who was at that time known as Richard, expressed his desire to live as a woman to his mother, she met his request with pure disgust and dropped him at a friends house with 10$ and a backpack of belongings. The only thing that Richard took from his old life was a silver plated, heart shaped locket that had belonged to his mother. It had a small picture of his grandmother enclosed. He was not sure why he took it but it brought him great comfort in that time of abandonment. He was to face some hard years but it was in the struggle that Ivetta was born.

By the time she ran into Abe in the fall of 1996 she was a 29 year old financial advisor. Beautiful, young and independent, living confidently in her truth. She was happy but had been missing something.

Ivetta moved Abe and herself to Houston, 3 months after finding him. She loved her son more than life and wanted a place that would be more accepting of a black transwoman raising a little white baby and she knew that she would never find that in the state of Alabama. Houston became home but in the end it proved to be a complication , as Houston was once of the first major cities to fall, 93% of the population, gone in a matter of weeks.

As Abe sat reflecting over the past 2 years he wondered if his mother would be proud of how he handled the end of the world? In a way he was glad she had perished during the first surge, watching her drown in her own sputum was hard enough, he could not imagine having lost her the way he lost his dog. Sometimes he could still hear his mother talking to him, telling him to just hold on a little longer, "Be strong Abe", "you can beat this Abe", or most recently " Jesus is holding your hand son, you'll be out of the dark soon". Her voice seemed so clear during his most restless sleep and although she sounded tired and sad, it brought him great comfort.

The world had become a dark place, one where happy times were barren memories and love was a thing of the past. Survival, was the ONLY state of mind. Those who had survived had become monsters in their own rite. Eating, drinking, smoking and raping by any means necessary. Abe was of the opinion that the poison in the air affected the chemicals in the brain, when released it was said to be a deterrent for the contagion factor but it only seemed to speed things along. While he was certainly no rapist or cannibal, he had done things he was not proud of as a means to stay alive....Why? He wasn't sure.

As he sat tonight overlooking the gaseous liquid that was once the Buffalo Bayou, he questioned the importance of continuing to live. He had been alone for the last 18 months, ever since his dog Remington got picked off by a pack of hungry scavengers. In this world, dogs like weaker people, were food. He missed Remington and had grieved heavily after the loss....but what was he to do? He had barely escaped with his own life....now, he feels that it would have been better to be eaten alive, than to be left alone.

Abe realized as his trauma saturated mind had a moment of clarity why he had made the dangerous trip to the bayou that evening, whether it was by marauder or his own hand he had no intentions of returning to the desolate apartment he had been squatting in for the last 9 months.

In the distance Abe heard screams, followed by the growls of something that only sounded partially human. As he sat listening he thought what a sweet relief it must be to feel the consciousness of this place slip away, even if only to be filled with a void.

Abe clutched his mothers' locket in his right hand, Remingtons ' collar in his left, he sat on the bank eyeing the 12 ft. drop into the toxic solution, he gave one last thought to his mother and beloved dog and without a second thought he threw himself into the waters of the venomous bayou. He was sinking and barely conscious when he realized he was being torn apart by the mutated life still living in the noxious depths....Abe felt teeth on his throat, a ripping sound, the water goes red.....and without any struggle, he fades from his hopeless reality.

…….Abeza awakes with a start! Ripping the tubes from his body. The nurse on duty that day would say that for a 16 year old, sick boy , he had a lot of strength, it took all she and Ivetta had to contain Abe in his conscious panic. Ivetta had been told for the third time, just the day before that he would never breathe without the machine that had been sustaining his life for the past 123 days, that covid had done too much damage to his young body but she held strong in her faith that God would see her son fully recovered. As Ivetta did her best to comfort her son...….it was the moment their eyes met that Abe gave up the fight, as his mind cleared and he came into reality, his body and expression went soft and he collapsed in his mothers arms. She held her half grown son and together they cried tears of relief, knowing that both of their nightmares were over.