by MW
Waking up in a cold sweat. It’s a little past seven in the morning.
I’m getting ready for school. Mom’s cooking woke me up out of that bad dream. I wonder what life would be like if these were different?
“Your bus is going to be outside, get there!”
As I ate the last of my bacon, I forgot my dang coat. It was raining.
“What are you doing?”
I snatched my jacket as I ran from her voice. Thinking to myself, I can never get a break.
I been so annoyed that I didn’t even talk to the bus driver when he greeted me.
I was already seated. The rain hit my window, I swore I felt it.
Social media was off the wall with the first case of COVID-19 hitting China. “I really hope it don’t come over here, I’m swinging.” But it’s airborne, I thought, as I keep listening.
“China said they got a gift for us, let me find out,” one of the kids noted. “Please be seated before the bus stops.” I was really trying to be the first one off the bus before the pushing and shoving.
Class was a little quieter because I didn’t feel like talking. I usually lit the room up with a joke.
“Class, we are here to talk about COVID-19’s first case in Washington.” I’m thinking how can this all start from a bat, okay. I raise my hand, thinking I knew it all. “How can it travel that fast? How can we avoid it if it comes to our state?” Nobody could answer my question.
So I finish the rest of my day like nothing ever happened.
Next week, more details was hitting the news. “1,000 new cases of COVID. Stay away from people. Matter of fact, six feet from people. We’re shutting down schools, jobs, plus we starting quarantine.”
Now this is crazy. I wasn’t expecting all this. World changing right before my eyes.
I can’t stop thinking about how much I didn’t have school, I couldn’t see my friends. How do I know if somebody has it or not? I walked outside like, where’s it at? Noticing how quiet it got – less cars, stores closing early. Thinking to myself, it feels like our last days.
I felt like I got stripped from my freedom. I had to find new hobbies because everything was closed. Family greeting was different. My cousin has a mask on, couldn’t even get a hug. “Watch out, you probably got that ‘Rona’”. I looked at him like he was stupid. I started eating more than I would. Still working out, it was so boring.
Eat, sleep, repeat. The days got longer, and the nights were shorter.
Walmart’s was running out of food, tissues, water, things that we need because people was taking this quarantine too serious. I mean my family was aware too late, so when we got there, we barely got items.
I learned so much over the weeks I was in the house, things could only get better or worse.