Three Great Hearts:

A Compelling Love Story

“Ah, I am ill,” She announced to no one as she arrived at work, and she was fortunate that no one heard. It was a darn weird thing for her to say. Weirdly worded, too.

“Oh, but I am so very ill,” she continued. She was even more fortunate that no one was around to hear that one, because that one was even weirder. What she really had to do was be quiet and go inside so she could get to work. There’s no point in describing her job, just that it is really ordinary. There’s even less point in describing the building she was walking into, it was even more boring.

Fortunately for her and for everyone else around, she didn’t say anything else weird (Well, she didn’t say anything, period) for…for a while at least. She went on an aggressive hunt to find someone to listen to the full explanation of her illness. So that particular person was not so fortunate.

The unfortunate person was a coworker that the weird woman barely knew. She just happened to be sitting in the break room, about to bite into a chocolate covered donut. She was really focused on the way its yellow flesh pinched as she bit in, the way the glaze cracked and stuck its flakes to her face and the way that the pale yellow filling pressed outward wherever it could, threatening to drip everywhere. In other words, she didn’t see or care that her weird coworker was sick, and she really didn’t care to hear about it. Too bad for her, she heard it, anyway.

“Oh, I am ill!” cried the weirdo.

“So go home.”

“Going home will only make it worse,” The ill girl insisted. As weird as this was, the donut eater was still too engrossed in the taste of the donut’s eggy dough and nearly liquid chocolate frosting to wonder why the girl would say such a thing. It was serious: some of the custard had escaped, and splattered the table. But she didn’t have to wonder, because the