Lockdown

     Later that night, everything sort of shifted.  Mami was in the living room and she still seemed super distracted by her phone. She kept pacing back and forth. Usually, she is not like that. She likes to sit and relax after being on her feet all day. Something IS going on. I heard her call me with a worried sound to her voice. “Em honey, come sit with me. We need to talk about something important.”

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     I wondered, “Did I do something?”  I didn’t think so. I sat down, crisscrossed on the couch. I leaned forward and felt my big ear do its nervous little twitch.

Mami started, “Did you see me checking my phone?”

     

     “Yeah,” I nodded, “a lot of times.”

 

     “Something bad is happening all around the world. There is a virus that is spreading really quickly. Hundreds of thousands of people are sick, it’s a pandemic. It even has a name, COVID 19.”

 

     “The virus has a name? What do you mean?”

 

     “I think many viruses have names; but we usually don’t know them. This one is way more contagious than most germs.  It is spreading so fast; the news keeps changing.”

Whoa, this is not what I expected. I better listen with my big ear.  “What’s going to happen?”

And Mami calmly said, “Tomorrow our country is going into lockdown.”

 

     LOCKDOWN!! What does that even mean?”          

 

    She answered very slowly, “I’m not exactly sure.” She looked at me with eyes that said, “We will be okay.” She held my hands and I calmed down a little and listened. She continued, “Right now, everything is closing for a couple of weeks. Every place where people gather needs to close to stop the spread of the virus.  All sports are cancelled because arenas have to close, theaters and stores are closed. Even the houses of worship, they’re all closed.”

 

     I snuggled a little closer to my mom.   “I’M SCARED.” Mami pulled me in, put her arm around and held me tight.

 

     “Preciosa, it is scary but IT WILL BE OK. We’ll figure it out together.”

 

     “Are we supposed to hide at home? In school during lockdown, we hide away from the door and turn the lights out.”

 

    Mami made an odd little laugh. “This is totally different from a school lockdown.  No hiding.” 

 

     She smiled at me. “The big thing is people need to stay away from others to slow down the spread of the virus.  We’ll have our own small family group.”

 

     “So, wait. What?”

 

     “Try not to worry. It shouldn’t be that long. Right now, I think people are trying to figure out who will be in their house with them during lockdown.  On social media people are calling it their coronavirus bubble”.

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     “I’m worried about Oma. Will she be in a bubble by herself?”

 

     “We’re going to the city to get Ma tomorrow; she will stay with us; she’ll be part of our bubble.”

 

     The next morning, we left to get my Oma. The sun was so bright and the sky was beautiful yet outside seemed different. It was morning but it felt so quiet and still, like the middle of the night.  We drove through our neighborhood- nobody was outside. On a regular day kids would be playing, parents would be going in and out with cars. People would be moving around, doing things. It was creepy quiet for a Saturday morning.  Alone on the road, we headed downtown.  We drove pass the Franklin Town Library, it was closed, The Finer Diner with the best chicken nuggets was closed.  We passed the hardware store, the bank and the Pizza Palace all closed. So weird. Then we passed the Post Office. The door was open, and one car was parked on the street. Then I noticed it was the only car parked on the street. Weird, weirdy weird.

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     Mami turned off Main Street and onto the ramp headed towards Oma’s.  Only a few cars were on the highway. Mami always complains about the city traffic. Not today!  She kept saying that we were making great time. We saw an Amazon truck whizz by.  Some other big trucks were driving fast too. We saw a couple of other cars. Mami said we would get there in no time. It was hard to make sense of this lockdown. “Mami, there are hardly any cars.  Where is everybody?”

 

     “I guess everyone is home. Our governor is telling everyone to settle in somewhere and stay there.”

 

     “Is this kinda weird?”

 

     “Oh my gosh yes, it sure is. It’s very weird! I could never imagine the whole world closed like this.”