Code Orange

Mitty has not slept well. When he gets to school, he sees Olivia, who gives him the book Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1882. “Don’t look so panicky […] I put Post-its on the good pages. Skip the rest” (50). When Mitty reads that smallpox feels like a fire that is feeding on the body, which serves as fuel for the fire, he suddenly feels thirsty.

Mitty does well on his English test on Beowulf and then goes to the library. The librarian gives him Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox by Jonathan Tucker. The opening discusses the two secure vaults (in Atlanta and Siberia) where smallpox virus stocks are kept. Mitty wonders what sort of “future threat,” implied by the title of the book, can exist if the disease is eradicated. He can’t imagine terrorists agreeing to a torturous death like smallpox; it’s not a fast death like that of a suicide airplane hijacker.

Mitty is powerfully affected by what he reads and starts to hallucinate a bit, imagining seeing both his English teacher and Olivia covered by smallpox sores. When Mitty turns in his draft to Mr. Lynch, the teacher is skeptical at first, since the paper is not due yet and not even Olivia would turn her paper in early. As the teacher reads, looking for evidence of plagiarism, Mitty thinks, “Whatever anybody says […] I won’t rework a single sentence. I’m sick of this topic. It got under my skin” (54). Ominously he then thinks back to crumbling the smallpox scabs and inhaling their dust.

When Mr. Lynch finishes reading, he is impressed. He gives Mitty more topics to research: bioterrorism, smallpox vaccine preparation, and future use or misuse of smallpox.

Other student topics are discussed. Tetanus is still around because the bacteria is still around, but people don’t get the disease because of inoculation. But polio is making a comeback because not everyone is vaccinated. Mitty asks if a vaccine can be used after a person gets sick. The teacher tells him to find the answer, which annoys Mitty.

However, Mitty already knows the answer. The more he reads, the more he understands that there is no treatment for smallpox once a person is sick. He is finally realizing the implications of what he has done. He has handled a smallpox scab, and thus he has possibly exposed himself to the disease. There is no separate update at the end of the chapter because Mitty is aware of the ominous subtext that has been lurking all along.

Mitty goes to the movies to distract himself, but he can’t shake the feeling that maybe he is developing symptoms of smallpox. He tells himself he is being ridiculous. When he gets home, he chats as usual with everyone in his building, from the doorman and the concierge who work in the building to the opera singer and her twins who live in the building. Talking to people makes him feel better and like he is getting back to normal.

But once he steps inside his apartment, he feels various smallpox symptoms again. He gets angry, blaming the school for getting him in this predicament. He then thinks about all of his school subjects, getting overwhelmed by all of his studies:

How could they ask him not only to write a huge biology paper but also to write an English paper and read Beowulf and do his math and world history, in which offhand he couldn’t remember what continent they were studying right now, never mind what century (62).

Mitty is frustrated and kicks his smallpox books under his bed, choosing instead to go online and read the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the USAMRIID (US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases) websites. He is comforted that they know what they are doing. He decides to find out if New York has a hospital for smallpox victims and learns that such a hospital exists, even though it is in ruins. The hospital is located on Roosevelt Island, and he realizes it was used in a Spiderman film. Mitty picks up a disposable camera at a drugstore and then takes the tram to Roosevelt Island.

When he finds the hospital, it is surrounded by a high chain-link fence. Mitty wonders why this security measure was taken if smallpox is no longer a dreaded disease, and he grows fearful that the government, despite the assurances of the CDC, is actually still worried about the threat of smallpox. His fears escalate until he realizes that the fence is in place not because of fears about smallpox, but because of fears about people vandalizing an old movie set. Mitty laughs at how he let his fears take over.

On the way home, he talks to his mom, Olivia, and his father, and he realizes just how much he loves and appreciates each of them. He thinks about the scab he has sitting in the envelope and “[t]he thought of his father touching that envelope made Mitty shiver again” (70). He can’t shake the feeling that the envelope is possibly dangerous.

When Mitty gets home, he does more research about the virus today—whether or not people might be developing smallpox as a weapon. And the next morning, he continues his research at school, learning that some people want to keep the virus around in case of a further outbreak and the need for a supply to develop a vaccine.

Mitty is tired of reading about smallpox. He plays his Spiderman DVD and falls asleep while watching the movie.

The update warns: “It had now been four days since Mitchell John Blake had inhaled the particles of a smallpox scab” (73).