感冒 (Cold)

I came down with a cold this morning, which put me in an awkward position. If I told the program coordinators, they would automatically take me to the hospital and put me through a rigorous examination that included blood tests, throat examinations and, for all I knew, another ultrasound and EKG. On the other hand, if I didn’t tell the coordinators, then they had the right to mark my day at home as an unexcused absence.



I decided to fly under the radar and stay at home in bed, trying to disrupt others as little as possible. I pretended to sleep when the housekeeper who speaks Klingon nonchalantly breezed through my room to hang up clothes on our drying patio, and I smiled weakly when my father advised me, in a line that could have been misconstrued in a different context, “that I was wearing too much clothing”.