Twenty-first Century Plague: Fear

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"Baxter!" I yell out the door calling my dog to come inside. My phone pings and I check it. It's a message from my Grandma.

Grandma: WHEN ARE YOU COMING OVER? WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THE FUR BABIES AGAIN.

Ever since my horrific breakup, my Grandma has been non-stop trying to help me out. I love her to death for it, but sometimes it gets a bit over whelming. I text her back and let her know that I am about to leave and proceed to finish getting ready for the day. I put on some mascara and pack my cats and dog into the car. Baxter always knows when it's time to go in the car. The moment I grab my purse, he comes running and howling, letting me know that he's ready to hit the road. 

When we finally get into the car, I sit there for a while procrastinating whether or not I really want to drive to Eagle River to go see my parents. I have been in such a depressive funk lately and barely get out of bed to go to work, but I know that I need to make money to pay my bills. My aunt and uncle were just nice enough to let me move in until I get back on my feet. 

I finally muster up the energy and will to put the car in reverse and back out of the driveway. Thankfully, my parents house is only about 20 minutes away, so it wasn't a very long drive to get there. 

My phone starts ringing after I pull onto the highway, so I press the answer button on my steering wheel and answer it. 

"Hello?" I said questioningly. I couldn't look who it was because the roads were really bad and I don't want to risk getting into an accident. 

"Rosie, how are you?" the voice replies. It was Jackie Shroeder. I had become friends with her through all the parties I went to with my ex. I really don't talk with her much anymore because I would much rather leave it all in the past and forget about it.

"I'm okay, how are you?" That was a lie, but she already caught  on that when I say that I'm okay, she knows I'm not and I really don't need another bullshit friend therapy session. 

"I'm great! Want to go to a party this weekend at the usual spot?" 

"Sorry, but the fur babies and I are spending the weekend with grandma." Another lie. I've become extremely good at lying these past couple weeks. I barely feel like going out in general. I'd rather not set myself up for running into my ex.

"Are you sure? I have a D.D."

"Yes, I'm sure, but hey, I'm about to pull into the driveway, so I'll talk to you later. Bye." I end the call without letting her say anything back because I know she could hear that the car was going faster than 25 miles per hour. 

I figured that she had taken the hint because she didn't text me asking why I hung up on her like she usually does. I was at my grandma's house in about 15 minutes because I sped most of the way there. 

I unpack the animals and our bags, then sit on the living room couch absolutely exhausted. My little sister is watching The Vampire Diaries, my older brothers are off doing their own thing somewhere else in the house and my grandma is making lunch for us. The main reason I came over is because I wouldn't have to make food this weekend and I've been eating a meal a day for the past two weeks so that I can save up to move out of the shit state of Alaska. Honestly, it's so hard to make a life here because everything is so expensive here. The current plan is to work until I make enough to make it down to Arizona by car and crash on an old friend's couch until I get a job and a bit more money saved up. It's going super slow though because I just had to update all of my animals shots and get my cat neutered.

"Hey, Rosie," my grandma says once she sees me sitting on the couch. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay. What's for lunch?"

"Spaghetti." A smile spreads across my face because this was a comfort food she used to make for me whenever I was feeling down. "Lunch will be ready in a few minutes. I meant to ask you last weekend, but totally spaced it, but do you have any birthday plans?"

"Nope. Just going to do the same thing I do every year. Come here, eat with the family, then watch sappy movies and eat cake until I explode. Maybe get plastered if I can get my hands on some alcohol."

"Well, if that's what you want to do, then you do it." 

The thing I love most about my grandma is that she never judges how I cope with things, even if it may not be the healthiest way to cope. 

My phone pings and I check it. It's from the news app. There's another case of Coronavirus in the United States. Frankly, I'm not super worried about it. I heard it's a lot like the regular flu, just with a few extra symptoms, like loss of smell and taste.

"Another case of Covid," I told my grandma.

"Yeah, I heard about it this morning. Are you worried about it?"

"Not really, it's basically the regular flu as far as I've read. Plus if they can keep those people contained, it shouldn't spread too far," I respond, not knowing what the future held for coronavirus. Who knows what will happen. It's from China and I heard Trump is already working on trying to shut down international travel to ensure that it doesn't become a huge issue in the United States, but he's getting quite a bit of backlash from the Democrats. I guess only time will tell. For now, I'm only focused on one thing and that was getting the hell out of Alaska. 

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After we finished eating, we turned on the news to see if there was any updates on the coronavirus outbreak. The information we got really wasn't helpful because this virus is so new. More cases had popped up just in the last few hours and a warning was set out to restrict how much of a single product you can buy from each store because people were emptying the shelves in fear. oddly enough, toilet paper was the largest shortage at the moment. I honestly can't understand why that, out of all things, was the main shortage.