She choked out. "Zed has a terrible stomachache. He keeps throwing up everything he eats."
It turned out he had food poisoning from eating too much of the red corn.
"Take him to the clinic. It's probably food poisoning," I advised before hanging up.
Without waiting for them to speak, I hung up the phone.
I hoped they would understand the source of the poisoning.
After my night shift, I dragged myself home, exhausted. The house was unusually quiet.
Linda was in the kitchen, still cooking the red corn.
She turned and saw me, her face darkening with displeasure. "Couldn't find you when Zed was in trouble yesterday! Now you dare to come back!"
"Thank god, Zed's fine."
Ignoring her discontent, I asked, "How is Zed?"
Linda was proud. "He's resting. Yesterday, he had some chicken and red corn. With the avian influenza going around, no more chicken for now! My poor boy."
I scoffed, shrugging indifferently. "Yes, no more chicken."
But it wasn't the chicken that was the problem. It was the red corn.
The toxins in moldy corn were dozens of times more potent than arsenic but accumulated slowly.
Mild cases led to diarrhea and food poisoning, but over time, they damage the liver and were carcinogenic.