Alibi by Teri Woods Page A

soreness were so bad that she immediately called her doctor and made an
     emergency appointment. Just as she opened the door and was about to leave, the mailman entered the vestibule, unlocked the
     mail holder caddy, and began placing everyone’s mail in their caddy holders.
    “Here you go,” he said as he handed the day’s mail to Daisy.
    “Thanks,” she said, turning around and taking the mail back inside her apartment. In too much of a rush to get to the doctor’s
     office, she threw the mail on the kitchen table and walked back out of the apartment, locking the door behind her.
    Dr. Vistane’s office was located at Thirty-eighth and Lancaster. A clinic well known for performing abortions and counseling
     young pregnant teens, it sat right on the corner. Daisy signed in and let the receptionist know that she was there for an
     emergency visit. After thirty minutes of waiting, Daisy heard her name being called. She was taken upstairs, and after a nurse
     took her weight, temperature, and blood pressure, she was placed in a room, given a plastic cup, and told to give a urine
     sample. Then she was to undress completely below the waist, lie on the table, and cover up with a paper covering. A few minutes
     later Dr. Vistane came into the room. He spoke with Daisy about how she was feeling and upon examination told Daisy to dress
     and that he’d be back in a few minutes, after testing some culture samples.
    It turned out that there were quite a few diagnoses made that day.
    “Daisy, you’re having what we consider to be a herpes initial outbreak.”
    “What?”
    “You have contracted the herpes virus, and the soreness and burning sensation are a result of the initial outbreak. It’s right
     at the tip of the opening of your vagina. It’s going to be painful and sore for at least the next three to possibly five days.
     After which it will form a scab and disappear. Usually, patients will have their initial outbreak and…” The doctor looked
     up from his chart to find Daisy in a pool of tears.
    “Herpes?” she asked.
    “Yes, Daisy, I am sorry.”
    “But how? When? I don’t understand.”
    “Well, sometimes it can be hard to pinpoint when, but the virus can lie dormant. Medically, they say anywhere from two to
     twenty days, even sometimes longer once you’ve been exposed to the virus. And your outbreak can last for several weeks. Once
     the outbreak heals, the virus will lie dormant in your nervous system until it re-emerges and you have your next outbreak,
     which could be one month from now or twenty years from now. Stop crying, this isn’t the end of the world. Millions of people
     are diagnosed with this virus, and after they’re diagnosed, some never have a recurrence again; others do. Daisy, it’s not
     the end of the world.”
    Daisy’s mind scrambled.
Lies dormant for weeks, may or may not come back again. There’s no telling who passed this to me.
Thirty days. She had slept with twenty or so men in the last thirty days alone.
What the fuck am I going to do now?
    “When is the last time you had intercourse?”
    She couldn’t help but think of nasty Felix and the last time she was at the Honey Pot, and how Calvin fired her and then she
     went home and had sex with Reggie, and then had sex with Reggie practically every day thereafter.
Oh, my god, what if I’ve given him herpes too. What if he has it now. Oh my god, if I done gave him this herpes virus, he’ll
     kill me, just kill me. What am I going to do? I can’t tell him, I can’t tell anybody.
Daisy wasn’t even listening to the doctor. She was too preoccupied with her own thoughts, trying to figure out who had burned
     her and passed her this horrid, dreaded virus. Not to mention, her mind was swirling with the thought that she had passed
     the virus on to Reggie, and lord only knew what would happen, and the worst of it all was that he’d probably never speak to
     her again.
    “So, I want to start you on some medication. You