bourgeois flu

bourgeois flu

fiction
edward w pritchard

The Howard's were doing quite well. Mr. Howard was the assistant treasurer for the City and Mrs. Howard was a lawyer over at the power company. They and their two daughters enjoyed a comfortable life, financially stable, with all the trapping of American success.

Like everyone they had their problems however, and theirs was their youngest daughter, Louise. Louise had been having health problems for close to a year and the third Specialist they consulted decided that the young girl had the bourgeois flu.

Being good parents, in time, and desperate, the Howard's eventually followed the Doctor's advice and began to simplify their lives to relieve the girl's symptoms. The girl's health seemed to improve immediately as they became less conventional, less materialistic, and dropped out of the race for the American dream.

All was not without repercussions however, for at work, Mrs. Howard began to come under scrutiny for being different when she downsized her car, and wardrobe, and when she stopped going to the home improvement store on weekends. Mr Howard comforted her of course, and he even got a dose of the community judgment himself when their friends at Church began to question their commitment to upward mobility for Black families, which is what the Howard's were.

To the Howard's all the ancillary problems and judgments of the community at large were worth it however, to have their Louise back in good health.