Work Text:
Ptoo!
Winona carries on with her conversation after a brief pause to spit off to the side of the sidewalk.
She doesn’t realize her companion has stopped walking, at least not until she goes to ask her what she thinks about her idea and gets no response. She turns around to see Genny ten feet behind her, looking at Winona with a frown.
“What? I said somethin’ weird?” She asks, tilting her head.
“No. You spit.”
“So? I always spit,” she says, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
“You don’t know?”
“Don’t know what, Genevieve?”
“They banned spitting. Said it transmits the Spanish Flu worse.”
“‘They,’ who?”
“The Department of Health,” Genny says seriously, and Winona scoffs.
“I think they just think it’s gross. Always findin’ somethin’ to hate on the working class for, huh?” She asks, elbowing her, and Genny’s mouth forms a straight line, her eyebrows following suit.
“What?” Winona asks.
“Really? You think I’d tell you something I didn’t believe in myself?”
“I didn’t say all that, now...” Winona says, walking back over to where Genny stands.
“You don’t believe me, do you?” She asks.
“Well.. I’d like to see some proof of it,” Winona says in lieu of an answer.
Genny looks around for a moment, then seemingly spots something a block away. She beckons Winona to follow her, and they wind up at a newspaper stand. The man behind it wears a white cloth mask over his face, and hesitantly waves at the pair.
Genny gives him two pennies and swipes the daily newspaper, holding it right in front of Winona’s face.
The first headline she finds reads: ‘STREET SPITTING MUST BE STOPPED.’
“What a load of..” she starts under her breath, but she continues to read.
‘City Manager Orders Police Department To Arrest Offenders On The Spot’
She blinks a few times, even rubs at her eye with her work glove to make sure she’s reading it right. Arrested for spitting?
It continues:
‘...has declared unrestricted warfare on the careless individual who expectorates promiscuously on the streets and in public places...
...spitting on the street is especially dangerous just now...in view of the epidemic of influenza...and the rapidity with which influenza germs are spread in this manner…’
“..Huh,” Winona says in awe. She.. hadn’t thought about it like that.
“Mmm-hm,” Genny says, flipping the newspaper over and handing it to Winona.
“The spread only gets worse with each day,” she says, Winona looks down to find a list of death tolls per city on the back of the newspaper.
“Oh man,” Winona says, and she quickly stops reading because she sees that her city is not at the bottom of that list.
“So, are you gonna stop spittin’, or am I gonna have to find s’more proof for you?” Genny asks with a raised eyebrow, and Winona scratches the back of her head sheepishly.
“No, no.. I think I got it now,” She says, and Genny smiles.
“Good. Now, what were you talkin’ about again?”