The Lockdown

25

Andy woke up with a low-grade fever and Cam made him stay in bed. By early afternoon he was delirious, his fever spiking and Cam called an ambulance. It was the scariest experience of his life, scarier than when his parents threw him out or when Sam was beating him to pulp.

Cam was trying to use a wet towel to mitigate Andy's fever but the older man seemed to grow hotter every minute. By the time the ambulance arrived an hour later, he was frantic with worry. Two paramedics entered the apartment in hazmat suits. They did two rapid Covid tests on both men, which came back negative, but they told him that the tests were only 80% correct so he should get tested immediately. They did a cursory exam on Andy questioning Cam of his symptoms and decided to transport him to the hospital. They made Cam put Andy's phone, his ID and insurance card in a plastic bag which they tied to his hand. The paramedics moved Andy to a stretcher and zipped him into a plastic cocoon with an oxygen bottle providing air supply. Cam followed them as they struggled with the stretcher down the stairs but they did not let him ride with them to the hospital. Cam ran after the ambulance to the hospital, which was only a block away and witnessed them wheeling Andy into the building. He tried to enter but they directed him to the main entrance, where he could talk to a nurse through a microphone set up outside while the she was safely behind thick glass walls. She told him to go to the parking lot of the hospital to an emergency tent where he was instructed to put on a second mask and latex gloves. Another nurse in hazmat came in shortly and shoved a probe so far up his nose he nearly vomited. They made him wait two hours in a white tent, alone, for the test to come back negative again, but they asked him to come back five days later for a second test just to make sure.

Cam went back to the front waving his negative test but hospital protocols made it impossible for him to enter. He was denied any information on Andy as he was not a family member. He was standing in front of the hospital door for a long time, frozen with indecision and fear, helpless as he could not even call Andy's mom because they took his phone. A security guard came to the door and asked him to leave otherwise he would have to call the police.

Cam moved to the other side of the street and sat down on the curb. He saw six other ambulances arrive in the next couple of hours as it got dark, loved ones often following the ambulance and going through the same protocol as he had to. It was cold, but Cam did not feel it. Someone had to come and talk to him about Andy and he was determined not to move until that happened. At 10 pm, a patrol car pulled up. Officer Gabriel Jackson, in full protective gear, got out of the car and stood in front of the small boy.

"Son, curfew has started and you can't be here." It was the third time in a week Officer Jackson had to perform the same duty, last night it was a distraught old man whose wife just died in the hospital. He took him to his daughter the next town and witnessed them sobbing together at the loss.

"I can't go, someone has to tell me how he is."

"Who is it?"

"My boyfriend. They wouldn't tell me anything because I am not family. But he is my family, he is the only one I have."

"Can you call his parents?"

"I don't have her number."

"Listen, son, you can't be here but if you give me his name, I'll see what I can find out."

"Andrew Carmichael."

"Andy? From the bar on Pine?" Cam nodded. "Darn it. He can't be thirty yet. Damn virus." He walked over to the hospital entrance, rang the bell and talked to the nurse who answered for a long time. He went back to Cam and sat down on the curb next to him.

"The good news is that it is not Covid. She wouldn't tell me much but from what she did I gathered that he is in the non-Covid designated wing of the hospital. Fortunately, I know her so she gave me the phone number that was listed as his emergency contact." He glanced at his notepad. "A Margaret Carmichael, you know her?"