RRP SPECIAL NOTE: The following piece is rated ‘Steamy.’ 

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Paintings and Polaroids

By Nadiyah Abdul-khaliq

I lay in bed, weak, exhausted, chills keeping me awake in a zombie state. Although I felt like dying, I still hoped this was a 24-hour bug and not something that would require real medication. And quarantine. Swine flu? Nah! Not possible. A heater in the corner kept my room hot and stuffy. The jury’s still out on if that actually helped me or not. All I knew was that I couldn’t breathe and was sweating like a pig in heat. Nighttime city sounds filtered in through the crack in my window. A deliberate crack. Heater on for heat. Window open for air.

I obviously lived alone and clearly never paid any attention whatsoever to my mother’s home remedies. A gambling man would have bet I’d be dead in 24 hours…