Usually, the intro is the easiest part of the story to write. Sometimes I use the intro as a stalling technique to think of an idea for the story, but, not this time. This story practically wrote itself.
Today’s Word:
lazaretto
As in:
Patients at Eastside Memorial Children’s Hospital eagerly awaited a scheduled visit from the Teletubbies today. The brightly colored characters, “stars” of the popular television show, are taking a tour of pediatric wards across the nation, cheering up sick children and their families.
But the tour was sadly ended after this afternoon’s visit to Eastside, a lazaretto in the Polnthy district of the city of Remoput, when the “cuddly, colorful, and oh-so cute” Teletubbies became violently ill, and were themselves hospitalized.
Apparently, the beings, who are from another planet and have no immunity to terrestrial maladies, contracted a disease from one of the tykes, and suffered from instantaneous tissue meltdown, and each lost approximately 95% of their upper skin layer.
“The skin literally melted off of them. It was awful. They left large puddles of primary colors all over the floor of little Tommy Anderson’s room. Yuck. They’ll be cleaning that place for days,” related one witness.
Little Tommy Anderson, now undergoing psychiatric care for shock at seeing his heroes melt in front of him, is not expected to every fully recover from the trauma.
The Teletubbies are currently in the NICU at Eastside. They were placed in separate in sterile environments the size of coffee cans awaiting treatment from their own physicians.
***************
You know, I think I enjoyed that just a bit too much.
lazaretto / LAZ-eh-RET-oh / a public hospital for poor people having contagious diseases, esp. for lepers.