Looking out my Backdoor: The wrath of Ralph

Rule No. 1: Never write when sick.

Rule No. 2: Do whadevah ya gotta do.

It’s a virus, I’m sure. Caught it from a hug from Josue, who thought he’d eaten bad mangoes. Four days ago. Mangoes good. Virus bad. Hugs good. I’m not going to live under a blister-pak.

I twist myself into knots in order to avoid paying obeisance to the toilet god, Ralph. Fortunately, neither my stomach nor my mind felt hunger that afternoon. I felt listless. I should have seen the clues.

Next day, you couldn’t have forced food past my lips. The very idea clenched my gut and enhanced my mental picture of myself, on my kne...