The Forest Keeps

A woman in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, bought four roast beef sandwiches from Arby's, took them home to her family, and woke up the next morning with herpes simplex virus type 1 lesions all over her mouth. She had never cheated on her husband, and he tested negative. The culprit, she suspected, was a rumor she'd heard around town: a coworker at that Arby's had been bragging about spitting in customers' food. Police reviewed surveillance footage from the night she bought the sandwiches and saw a 38-year-old employee named Amanda Hendrix removing roast beef from the slicer and spitting on it. Hendrix had an active herpes outbreak. She confessed. Jenica Church now faces a lifetime of cold sores and the fear of spreading the virus to her husband and two children. A two-year-old in 2025 went blind in one eye after being kissed by someone with an active outbreak. Hendrix was charged with a felony for poisoning food with intent to injure. Jenica is suing Arby's for allowing an employee with visible lesions to keep working.

The Forest That Swallows People