CLEAN BLOOD
> The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio. You hear a
> little blurb about a little village in India where some villagers have
> died suddenly,
> strangely, of a flu that has never been seen before.
> It's not influenza, but three or four fellows are dead, and it's kind of
> interesting. They're sending some doctors over there to investigate it.
> You don't think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you
> hear another radio spot. Only they say it's not three villagers, it's
> 30,000
> villagers in the back hills of this particular area of India, and it's on
> TV that night. CNN runs a little blurb; people are heading there from the
> disease
> center in Atlanta because this disease strain has never been seen before.
> By Monday morning when you get up, it's the lead story. For it's not just
> India; it's Pakistan, Afghanis tan, Iran, and before you know it, you're
> hearing
> this story everywhere and they have coined it now as "the mystery flu".
> The President has made some comment that he and everyone are praying and
> hoping that all will go well over there. But everyone is wondering, "How
> are we
> going to contain it?"
> That's when the President of France makes an announcement that shocks
> Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or
> any of
> the countries where this thing has been seen.
> That night you are watching a little bit of CNN before going to bed. Your
> jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is translated from a French news
> program
> into English: "There's a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the
> mystery flu." It has come to Europe. Panic strikes.
> As best they can tell, once you get it, you have it for a week and you
> don't know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable symptoms.
> Then you die. Britain closes it's borders, but it's too late. South
> Hampton, Liverpool, North Hampton, and it's Tuesday morning when the
> President of the
> United States makes the following announcement:
> "Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia
> have been canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I'm sorry. They
> cannot
> come back until we find a cure for this thing."
> Within four days our nation has been plunged into an unbelievable fear.
> People are selling little masks for your face. People are talking about
> what if it comes to this country, and preachers on Tuesday are saying,
> "It's the
> scourge of God.
> "It's Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody
> runs in from the parking lot and says, "Turn on a radio, turn on a radio."
& gt; While
> the church listens to a little transistor radio with a microphone stuck up
> to it, the announcement is made,"
> Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu."
> Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country.
> People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote.
> Nothing is working. California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts.
> It's as though it's just sweeping in from the borders. Then, all of a
> sudden the news comes out. The code has been broken. A cure can be found.
> A vaccine
> can be made.
> It's going to take the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected, and so,
> sure enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of
> emergency
> broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing:
> "Go to your downtown hospital and have your blood type taken. That's all
> we ask of you. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood,
> please make
> your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals."
> Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that Friday
> night, there is a long line, and they've got nurses and doctors coming out
> and
> pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it.
> Your wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and
> they say, "Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can
> be dismissed
> and go home."
> You stand around scared with your neighbors, wondering what in the world
> is going on, and that this is the end of the world.
> Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's
> yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your
> son tugs
> on your jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me."
> Be fore you know it, they have grabbed your boy. "Wait a minute, hold it!"
> And they say, "It's okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want
> to
> make sure he doesn't have the disease. We think he has got the right
> type."
> Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and
> hugging one another some are even laughing. It's the first time you have
> seen anybody
> laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and says,
> "Thank you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect. It's clean, it is pure,
> and we can make the vaccine."
> As the word begins to spread all across that parking lot full of folks,
> people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying.
> But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says,
> "May we see you for a moment? We didn't realize that the donor would be a
> minor
> and we need. . . we need you to sign a consent form."
> You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be
> taken is empty.
> "H-h-h-how many pints?" And that is when the old doctor's smile fades and
> he says, "We had no idea it would be a little child.
> We weren't prepared. We need it all!"
> "But but..."
> "You don't understand. We are talking about the world here. Please sign.
> We - we need it all, we need it all!"
> "But can't you give him a transfusion?" "If we had clean blood we would.
> Can you sign? Would you sign?" In numb silence you do. Then they say,
> "Would
> you like to have a moment with him before we begin?"
> Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits on a
> table saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?" Can you take his hands
> and say, "Son,
> your mommy and I love you, and we would never ever let anything happen to
> yo u that didn't just have to be. Do you understand that?"
> And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry, we've - we've
> got to get started. People all over the world are dying." Can you leave?
> Can
> you walk out while he is saying,
> "Dad? Mom? Dad? Why - why have you forsaken me?"
> And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honor your son, and
> some folks sleep through it, and some folks don't even come because they
> go to the
> lake, and some folks come with a pretentious smile and just pretend to
> care. Would you want to jump up and say, "MY SON DIED! DON'T YOU CARE?"
> Is that what God is saying? "MY SON DIED. DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I
> CARE?"
> "Father, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts. Maybe now we begin
> to comprehend the great love you have for us. Amen "
>