Memory

9 - Faith

Finally, a month had gone by. On top of that, it was Spring Break.

Memory was lying awake in her room, thinking about her friends, school, and especially Derrick. Like last time, it was hard to keep in touch with everyone during quarantine. She found that she stayed in bed a lot, not doing much of anything. Staring at the ceiling, daydreaming about anything she could to pass the time.

That was what she was doing now at 1 o'clock. Thunder crashed from outside her window, followed by the patter of rain. The sound of the storm soothed her as daydreams upon daydreams filled her mind. It wasn't until a loud crack of thunder startled her, abruptly waking her up. Her heart began beating faster, as it would every time she would think about Derrick. Memory tried to calm herself down by closing her eyes again, trying to ease her thoughts and slip into another dream. She thought of Derrick, with his arms wrapped tightly around her as he tried to comfort her during the storm. He kissed away her fearful tears with soft, sweet kisses.

Memory did not remember falling asleep. At one moment, she was daydreaming about Derrick, and the next she drowsily opened her eyes to the bright sunlight that filtered into her room through her window. The time on her phone told her that it was 7 o'clock. Instead of getting out of bed to get ready for the day, she rolled over and went back to sleep.

Mom came into Memory's room in the span of what felt to Memory like only a few minutes, startling her awake once again. "You need to get out of bed, it's 10 o'clock in the morning. We are going to go see your grandmother today and have lunch with her. Hurry up and get ready." Mom left the room annoyed, slamming the door behind her.

Memory glared at the doorway as Mom left the room. It was not a big deal, but Memory hated it. There were a lot of things that Mom did that she hated. Part of her wanted to talk to her about it, but as her child, she never felt that she could. Her frustration and anger quickly faded as she remembered that they were going to see Grandma today. It felt as if it had been forever.

It was Tuesday. School still had not started back up, and the governor had not announced that everything would be opening back up. Mom kept saying that we had to have faith that everything would return to normal. But after a while, Memory stopped believing her. What good is faith when humanity has the control?

Against Mom and Daddy's wishes, Grandma insisted that she went with them to the restaurant. She decided that she wanted Panera Bread, which was right around the corner from her apartment complex. Memory was ecstatic to get out of the house, but even more so to see Grandma. Even though they talked every Sunday for their movie nights, it was not the same as seeing her in person. The moment that Memory saw Grandma walk out of her apartment building, she jumped out of the car and hugged her tightly, a calming embrace she wished could last forever.

It only took a couple of minutes to get to Panera. Memory tuned out most of the conversation and began daydreaming again. She wanted to stay off her phone because Grandma was around, but it was hard to resist the urge to play on it or text someone. Granted, she had not talked to any of her friends in a while, but Derrick always tried to text her. At 11 o'clock, he most likely was not awake yet.

Derrick's parents decided to separate. Even though he hated that they always fought, he hated it even more that his dad was gone. He got an apartment in the city while Derrick stayed with his mom in their house. To Memory, he seemed happier. She tried to not bring up the subject when they would call because he was always laughing and flirting with her. He was back to who he was when they first met, which made Memory happy.

When they walked up to the door for Panera Bread, the sign out front said: "Face Mask Required Upon Entry" in big, blocky letters. Grandma was wearing hers and so were Mom and Daddy, but Memory had to put one on. The place was busy, and Mom and Daddy were trying to convince Grandma to leave but she would not move from her spot. When Grandma set her mind to something, there was no stopping her. She was a bit stubborn in that way, but Memory couldn't help but admire that aspect of her grandmother.

After what felt like forever standing around and waiting at the entrance, they finally got up to the register to order their food. There were so many options to choose from that Memory did not know what to get. She finally decided to get a turkey sandwich after many minutes of indecisiveness. She did not pay attention to what her family got. It did not matter, though; what mattered was that they had fun and got out of the house, even if it was only for about an hour.

A few days after their lunch date with Grandma, Memory and her parents began feeling sick. Mom was throwing up all the time, even when she had nothing to throw up. Memory lost her taste of pretty much everything. All Daddy had was a slight fever, so he was the one who took care of Mom and Memory. Since he was the one who was the least sick, he went and got Covid tested at our local clinic. It came back positive.

Soon after the test came back positive, Mom tried calling Grandma but got no response. It worried her so much that she began throwing up again. It was not until later in the day that Mom got a call from Uncle Tommy about Grandma. She was in the hospital with Covid and in critical condition.

Instead of Mom being the one to tell her, it was Daddy. His eyes looked glazed over, portraying the look of stress, sadness, and worry all at once. At first, Memory was numb to the news. It sunk in after a moment though, and it hit her like an incoming train at full speed. She tried going to her parents for comfort, but Mom shooed her away. Memory worried for Mom and was scared for Grandma.

Eventually, Mom came into Memory's room. It looked as if she had been crying for days. "I am so sorry, my daughter. I know that I should have been the one to tell you instead of your father, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm truly scared, Memory."

Mom began crying again, which made Memory cry, too. Jumping out of bed, she ran towards Mom and wrapped her arms around her. They just stood there together, holding each other close and crying until they no longer had tears to cry. In the midst of it, Memory thought about the one thing Mom had said just days before and repeated it, her voice barely a whisper through the immense grief she felt.

"We need to have faith."