Paranoia

So I've been reading Stephen King a lot of late. It's kind of weird for me, I grew up with my mom who read all his classics, It, The Shining, The Stand, Salem's Lot, Tommyknockers. My only exposure to them was what I observed on the covers and whenever they happened to be adapted into a movie by ABC, but then about a year and a half ago I decided it was time to take that step. I picked up my first Stephen King book, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger. Anyone out there familiar with King's work would be aware of the Dark Tower. I read the first one and was in love. I consumed as much of them as I could, and it was right before the last three were to be published, augh, I get ahead of myself. This post isn't about the Dark Tower, (I'll save that for another time) it's about the King book I'm reading now.

The Stand is a great book, but the beginning part of the book can lead one to be quite paranoid around such subtle and common things. The first part of the book (for those of unfamiliar) deals with a superflu as it slowly spreads across the country. This superflu starts out looking like regular flu, or a cold with its symptoms (coughs, sneezes, etc.), except this flu kills you. So for the past week I've been walking around in all the crummy weather we've been having, and I hear someone sneeze or cough and I get nervous, want to cover my mouth and run away. So far the urge has been light enough to subdue it before I cause a scene somewhere, but a part of me keeps saying it's only a matter of time...