The Andromeda Strain

On one particularly memorable evening in Cromwell, Polaroid pictures were taken of me and all my friends, including Teddy, wearing bunny ears, and these pictures were then pasted onto a wall in a kitchen and looked at quite frequently. One day, as I was preparing an anniversary package to send to LC, I decided to include Teddy's picture, so I took it off the wall and threw it in the box. The next day, I met with Teddy's scowl.

"Somebody took my picture, mate," he said.
"Oh?"
"They're going to get sick, if they don't give it back," he said.
"Oh?"
"I'm part Maori, and there's a voodoo on the picture, and they're going to get sick."
"Oh."

The next morning, I stepped out of my cabin and vomited. At work, I vomited again, nearly in the wine, and decided to go home. Where I vomited more, had hot and cold flashes, and just generally felt like shit. I didn't tell Teddy, though, because if he knew I took his picture, probably he would have killed me.

"I think I have the flu again," LC told me over the phone, a week later.
"Oh?"
"I feel horrible. I didn't go to work today."
"Oh?"
"I don't know why I keep getting the flu. There's no reason why I should be sick. Oh, but I did get your package today. Happy Anniversary!"
"Oh."

I was only sick for two days, but LC was out of sorts for nearly a month. We were going to burn the picture, but before that, I decided to take a blurry picture of the picture, hoping that the blurriness would kill the voodoo, or at least tone it down to just like a stomach ache or light vertigo. Have a healthy summer!