Corona VS Love

COVID-19 The Enemy

16 March, 2020
In that big room (maybe it was like the pit or large meeting room, where we sat day and night) and in the end of the day, everyone went to their room.
Mine was across from Abby's in the same hall.
People around me were mostly youth and maybe some teenagers but there were no many elders.
"Isn't supposed to affect the old people more? Then why mostly are the young here ?" Abby asked me.
"I don't know really but maybe the old ones don't survive it."
I didn't focus on how the pit we were in, was like but It consisted of many scattered tables every corner with Doctors and nurses checking up on each of us -now and then-in their Intact closed uniform.
The rooms were soulless, plain and white as ice.
If I wished for something right then, it would've Been my sketchbook to be able to give some life for that boring place In a portrait.
Suddenly, the peace -we were partially in-was cut by the hard continuous coughs of a young girl who was on the floor by then. She was coughing so hard that her face and cheeks were pure pinkish red.
Everyone froze in their place including me and Abby, staring at this young girl who was suffering except the medical staff who were on their way to that girl.
This young's hands were on her chest which was moving up and down very rapidly with that sound she was making, confirming her lack of oxygen.
She couldn't breathe at all as the nurses and doctors reached to her and carried her to another room professionally and spontaneously... and that left with shock and complete silence.
Everyone was silent
A weeping voice came out among us and it was from a middle-aged woman..she was crying so hard.
Still everyone else was in shock even me And abby.
I lost myself in thinking of that little girl who I had seen just yesterday and the way she was dancing and laughing. Now she was taken to place away from us and suffering so hard to breathe.
If she could ever again!
"Where did they take her?" Abby wondered.
Before I could answer, another voice said, "the ones who cannot breathe on their own, they put them on ventilator machines." It was man's.
~~~~~~~~
Things had almost returned to the normal state as it was before the incident took place. However Abby was silent and frozen on her chair and her features were fixed and unchanged.
"Hey!" She didn't hear me. I clicked my finger at her face twice... Nada! Nothing.
But her face moved.
"Are you okay?" What a stupid question! She nodded, not looking at my direction. She was in another world.
She was still in shock but somehow I was fine.
Maybe I was glad this young girl wasn't Abby.
I sighed, warm air crushing back to my face as I was breathing through the damn mask.
I wasn't focusing on Abby anymore as she was in another realm instead I focused on the middle-aged woman who was -awhile ago- weeping for that young girl. She was then mourning in silence, sitting on her Chair 10 feet away from us. However, she was staring at the ceiling, her eyes fixed and hard.
She didn't notice my presence when I sat across from her just like Abby didn't notice I was gone.
"I'm so sorry!" I told her. She-at first- stayed as she was but a moment after She moved her head slowly to face my eyes. Her eyes were empty,  just filled with nothing.
She was reimagining what had happened here, I thought.
I continued, "I'm Samuel Louis, I thought I could come and say that I'm truly sorry."
She said nothing back, still her dark eyes scanning me and giving me the creeps.
She could see me but she couldn't comprehend or even answer.. still in some kind of shock. Her body language was so loud as her hands rested on her crossed legs and for a moment I noticed something! this woman was so elegant in every way when she moved slowly every now and then.
I felt stupid coming here but I didn't move away.
We had time to kill
And Abby wasn't in her mind now
It was my intention to get to know people, starting with that woman.
I crossed my arms over my chest , relaxing my back and paying attention to her body language,
She was mourning in silence. However she was scanning me clearly.
I could see she looked afraid
But she was silent......
"Hey!" She said, showing her high pitched feminine voice. I could guess she was a high-class lady from an ancient family despite her white uniform just like everyone's.
She was elegant and lady like.
"I thought you'd need some company!" I said, hope filling my voice.
"Yeah! I'm Margaret"
"How did you get it ? The virus, I mean?!"
She squeezed her hands.
"I never knew! I was fine for a bit of time and out of nowhere I wasn't able to breathe with hard coughs crushing my bones. I took the test and here I am!" Softly, she said. I nodded and decided to end the conversation as fast as I could. She couldn't speak easily and I was jerk about asking and bothering her, I thought.
I was about to stand up, leaving her with her own demons (everyone here got them of course). However she said, letting her walls down for a split second, "This young girl was not my daughter or even relative but she came here with me on the same day." I sat down, focusing on her words. "How long have you been here?"
"Eleven days!
"It's so bad and unfair to see this little angel who was so full of joy and happiness yesterday, crying and suffering from all that pain. She is so young!! I just wonder why her and not me! She is so young!!!" A tear shed form her left eye but quickly she removed it crossing her arms, guarding her heart and her feelings as She was one mile of falling apart.
I didn't say a word, just letting her come clean with everything happening inside her. "Her name is lili, 17 years old, couldn't go to her own prom instead she is trapped here missing out one of her cherished moments of her life."
"I'm sure they cancelled prom." Almost laughing, I said. My attempt to break the ice was complete failure. "But not in Lili's mind! Why would she suffer from something like that when she is just young?!"
"The virus doesn't choose its host! It's as random as it can get!" I didn't give her an answer she would like or accept. I didn't find the right answer for that question. "Why can't she just worry about whom she's going to prom with or her prom dress instead she is here!" She started to wind down as she spoke, "why her?!" She mumbled, her eyes everywhere but not at me.
"Life was never said to be fair, all we gotta do is to work through it with all the bad and the good."
She looked me in the eye, listening to what I had to say, "I know what it feels like to have someone around all the time and suddenly disappears and you gotta collect the left pieces and and pull yourself together.
"Not the same thing but I feel ya!" I didn't know I had the ability to comfort someone but I did to that woman. Her features softened little by little.
I wondered how people who share similar trauma have the ability to comfort each other!
"She was all my life and suddenly vanished like that, leaving me in sorrow and despair and worst of them all guilt! Guilt craving me every day and night! I kept thinking what I had done to make her leave! Maybe If I didn't do that she would still be here and many other shitty thoughts!
"But then the best thing happened to me." Turning to look at Abby and Margaret's eyes tracing my gaze until she saw Abby and smiled.
"It'll get easier! I promise you that and lili will be just fine! I'm sure of it!" I wasn't sure of it at all but now wasn't the time to be honest!
A hand rested gently on my left shoulder, making me pause for a second.
At first I thought it was Abby though it was somebody else, when I turned around I saw the last person I wanted to see At least after all that distance and time we had apart.
"Maya!"
"Hi, Sam!" I had never felt that heaviness in my name before.
It was her after all those months.

(Stay safe stay home, everyone! ♥️)