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b'Episode Notes
While self isolating to avoid a global pandemic an eccentric rich man begins to realize his past is after him as much as any virus.
Quarantine: A Story of Isolation by Keith Tomlin
Music by Ray Mattis
http://raymattispresents.bandcamp.com
Produced by Daniel Wilder
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Transcription:
Chester Lytle stretched his legs and turned the page in the book he was reading.\\xa0 Although he rarely allowed himself to think it, he was alone in the world.\\xa0 He had no friends and his father, the last of his relatives, died when he was a teenager. When Chester turned eighteen, he inherited a small family fortune in a trust that took care of all of his needs. \\xa0 He never had to work a day in his life, which gave him plenty of time to pursue his only passion, books. \\xa0
With a book, he could be transported anywhere in the world, anywhere in the galaxy.\\xa0 He can be a captain of a ship hunting a great white whale, he can command starships, pursue criminals through the streets of 1920\\u2019s Chicago, and be a great ball player, beloved by an entire nation.\\xa0 Books were his refuge, his safe place from horrors and pains of life.\\xa0 The world outside his door may crazy and deadly but he was safe and sound, alone, in his comfortable house in a small town in Connecticut.\\xa0
When Chester first heard reports of a mysterious new disease rising out of China, he knew it would only be a matter of time before it came to America.\\xa0 He had read enough novels about pandemics, plagues, and outbreaks to know that someone, somewhere, screwed up and unleashed a demon upon the world.\\xa0 He was not surprised when a lockdown was instituted and, to tell the truth, it wasn\\u2019t much of a change for him.\\xa0 Chester liked the isolation, it felt comfortable, like an old friend, not that he knew what a friend felt like. \\xa0
On this night, the night of Chester\\u2019s death, he was reading a story about a pirate king who fell in love with a serving wench and was now facing a ship full of mutinous sailors.\\xa0 His first mate, the instigator of the mutiny, had just grabbed the pirate king\\u2019s one true love and held a knife to her throat.\\xa0 Chester\\u2019s breath quickened as he hurriedly turned the page to see how the pirate king would prevail and save his queen.
Scratch
The strange noise broke Chester\\u2019s concentration.\\xa0 He shook his head as if waking from a dream and looked around the room.\\xa0 Every wall in the living room was lined with bookshelves, each one stuffed with hard cover books, paperbacks, and manuscripts of all kinds.\\xa0 The room was dimly lit by a gas fireplace, throwing strange and mysterious shadows around the room.
He cocked his head and listened for the noise again. \\xa0
\\u201cWhat was that?\\u201d, he mumbled to himself.\\xa0 He spent a few minutes more listening, silently trying to probe the deep shadows around the bookcases.\\xa0 When the noise did not repeat itself, he shrugged and bent his head back to his book.\\xa0 He started reading again but the spell was broken.\\xa0 He couldn\\u2019t summon up the scene that had been playing in his head.\\xa0 He tried going back a few pages to see if that would kickstart the story but it was no use, the magic had faded.\\xa0 Sighing, he put the book down, carefully inserting a bookmaker to preserve his spot. \\xa0
Chester stood and stretched, his back cracking as he arched backwards.\\xa0 He realized that he has been slacking on his calisthenics.\\xa0 Maybe he\\u2019ll try to get in 20 jumping jacks before bed, he thought absently.\\xa0 He walked to the doorway, turning sideways to slide between the two bookshelves that partially blocked the opening between the living room and dining room. \\xa0
The dining room was also lined with bookcases.\\xa0 These shelves were even more crammed with books than the den.\\xa0 Stacks of well-read paperbacks covered most of the floor, leaving only a path to get from the small table and single chair in the middle of the room to the three doorways, leading to the living room, kitchen, and hallway. \\xa0
Squeak
Chester stopped.\\xa0 He stared, confused, at the floor.\\xa0 He gingerly began applying more pressure to his front foot, testing the floorboard that he was standing on.\\xa0 When he first heard the noise, he thought it may have come from there but the more he thought about it, the more he was sure it came from his left, towards the hallway. \\xa0
\\u201cThis is strange\\u201d, he said out loud.\\xa0 His voice cracked as he spoke.\\xa0 He wasn\\u2019t used to speaking above a whisper but he felt he had to say something to break the eerie silence that had dropped over the room. \\xa0
Chester held his breath and listened, thinking that he had to be alone, no one else could have gotten in here without him hearing them.\\xa0 Each of the windows and the backdoor have been boarded up and the house was sealed tight to keep out light, sound, and disease.\\xa0 The front door had nearly a dozen locks on it.\\xa0 He only opened it every other week when he received his supply of food and reading material and that was only after he was sure the delivery person was long gone.\\xa0
Chester had no idea who delivered his supplies, the family trust took care of everything. To him, it was almost like magic, everything he needed seemed to show up without him having to ask for it.\\xa0 He then wondered if he had a book with a story about a dashing young hero that fought off home invaders.\\xa0 That may be a good for a thrill before bedtime. He seemed to remember a book of short stories in the bathroom\\u2026. He stumbled as he suddenly realized that he had been holding his breath this whole time. He loudly exhaled, taking a few quick deep breaths to clear the dizzy feeling from his head. \\xa0
The strange noise already forgotten, he headed into the kitchen to make himself dinner.\\xa0 He absently stepped over the stack of paperbacks that line the kitchen doorway and walked to the kitchen cabinets.\\xa0 Opening up a cabinet door, he selected the lone plate sitting on a shelf.\\xa0 He then reached into the breadbox and pulled out 2 slices of white bread, placing them on the plate.\\xa0 Turing to the fridge, he opened the door and looked over the shelves which housed a partial gallon of milk and several packages of butcher paper containing various types of lunch meat. He thoughtfully pondered over what type of sandwich he wanted before finally selecting a package of sliced turkey.\\xa0 He deliberately pulled out 4 slices of turkey meat and placed them onto a slice of bread.\\xa0 He put the second piece of bread on top and made sure the sandwich was centered on the plate. \\xa0
Next comes his favorite part of dinner; desert.\\xa0 Chester opened up a drawer and looked longingly at a pack of vanilla cr\\xe8me cookies.\\xa0 Whomever delivered his supply of groceries only give cookies once a month so he was careful to ration them.\\xa0 Shivering with anticipation, he reached into the drawer to grab the three cookies that he would eat with his meal. \\xa0 \\xa0
\\u201cWhat?\\u201d he exclaimed when he found nothing but crumbs.\\xa0 There should have been enough for at least three more days but the package was empty.\\xa0 Dumbfounded, he picked it up and shook it, showering the counter with crumbs that fell from a ragged hole in the back of the package.\\xa0 Turning it over, he stared at that hole for several seconds.
It slowly dawned on him that something had chewed through the plastic wrapper and ate his cookies, that something was loose in the house, that something had invaded his space, his safe zone.\\xa0 His mind flashed through the endless possibilities of what this creature may be.\\xa0 He thought of stories with creatures from outer space, demons from the darkest pits of hell, and fairies from tales of old.\\xa0 He finally realized the only logical explanation would be\\u2026
\\u201cA mouse?\\u201d, he whispered out loud. \\xa0
\\u201cA mouse.\\u201d, he said, in a firm voice.
\\u201cA mouse!\\xa0 A goddamn mouse in my goddamn house!\\u201d, he exclaimed loudly.
At the edge of his peripheral vision, he seen something dart out of the kitchen, running between stacks of books, into the dining room.\\xa0 Chester gave a guttural growl and picked up the closet object he could reach and threw it at the creature.\\xa0 The empty package of cookies only flew a few feet before slowly floating to the ground.\\xa0 Chester\\u2019s face turned red with the shame he used to feel as a child when he tried to play sports with the other kids.\\xa0 The indignity of it was too much and he charged into the dining room, kicking over stacks of paperbacks as he ran. \\xa0
Breathing hard, he stopped to listen and, upon hearing nothing, he arbitrarily chose to proceed down the hall.\\xa0 He paused every few stops, drawing on the lessons he learned reading countless stories about great hunters stalking prey in the deepest, darkest jungles of Africa.\\xa0 He made a point not to think about the fact that a great hunter would not accidentally kick a copy of The Great Gatsby down the hall causing a stack of mid-century French poetry books to topple over.\\xa0 He stopped at the bathroom and flicked on the light.\\xa0 Looking at the piles and piles of books, for the first time he no longer saw adventure and romance, he only saw all the dark places where an enemy could hide.\\xa0 \\xa0
Chester nudged a pile of books with his foot, jumping back in anticipation of a rabid rodent leaping out to attack him.\\xa0 When nothing happened, he felt like a fool, his face once again turning red with shame.\\xa0 Disgusted with himself, he kicked another pile of book.\\xa0 He shrieked with panic when a mouse did pop out from behind that pile, ran across his foot, and out into the hall.\\xa0 Falling back and landing on his rear, he caught a quick glance of the small furry brown creature squirming under the door of the spare bedroom, across the hall from the bathroom. \\xa0
Trying to rise to his feet, Chester slipped on some paperbacks before his feet found purchase and he smashed into the bathroom doorknob. He grunted as pain exploded from his hip but h'