QUARANTINED

Day Five

A sombre mood soared over the women of room 201, it was as if someone had died and they were mourning. Well someone had died and yet the sombre feeling wasn't because of her, it was all because of what had happened the night before. After getting rejected by the older woman, Aaliyah sat on her bed and waited for the older woman to come back so they could have a proper conversation but Cordelia stood cowardly behind the door. She had been listening to the girl sniffle and cry while holding back the urge to enter and hold the girl. It was rather odd having those feelings towards the girl or towards anyone for that matter, she was truly scared of what was occurring to her. A mere little girl had already undone so much when they have only known each other for five days.

Cordelia wasn't too emotionally intelligent, she was never taught to deal with her emotions or feelings so what she does is hide them , deep into her brain and hope they would soon fade. Of course in never works because those feelings threaten to bobble up and make her cry but she never did cry, it wasn't like her to cry over anything.

When Cordelia was only a little girl, she had begged her family to get her a pet as she was ready for the responsibility and they agreed, rather fast. She was truly happy for the pet and she couldn't wait to have either a puppy or a little striped kitten, she loved those, but her parents came in with a little plastic hidden behind her father. They had gotten her a little goldfish, it had shiny gills and was a good swimmer, and she worked hard to preserve its little life as she didn't know that goldfish weren't known for its long life span. She would wake up in the morning, change the water, feed it and watched it with complete astonishment. She did that for two whole days and she was content with her little fish as any child would be but that happiness was taken from her on the third day, little Goldie swam above for her death. Cordelia had cried when she found her fish floating above.

"What has happened?" her mother had asked as she rushed to her daughters side.

"Goldie is dead!" little Cordelia shrieked.

"Is that why you are making such a noise?" her mother's mood had shifted completely, it was as if she were angry at the girl for showing some amount of sadness.

"Mom!" little Cordelia pleaded, she didn't know why but she pleaded with her mother.

"Cordelia, you cannot cry over spilt milk as it cannot be returned to the milk bottle" her mother had said "Instead of crying so much, how about you wipe those tears, throw it in the toilet and go find another one"

"But mom"

"Little girl! There is so much worse happening out there so you will need to toughen up and move on" her mother had said.

"But I loved Goldie" little Cordelia said.

"Love? What do you even know about that?" her mother had asked

"You love Pa" naïve Cordelia said and her mother slapped her across her face, which was the first time she ever hit the girl.

Ever since then, Cordelia had managed to keep her feelings in check. It was the only thing she has ever known but now she had these overwhelming feelings for the girl that had been on her phone since the morning. They hadn't even said much to each other as Aaliyah never saw the woman walk back in during the night and when they woke up, they only said their greetings and moved on with their lives.

Aaliyah was mortified by what had occurred and she didn't even know how to behave, in her defence, she has never been in such a situation. She thought that if she waited for Cordelia to speak to her first then she would feel better but it seemed like the older woman had no intention of speaking to the girl. Of course Aaliyah could see that the woman was slightly broken because no one would ever say such awful things about themselves but Aaliyah found herself revelling in the things Cordelia had said.