The Letter of the Person Named Clara Marie

The Letter of the Person Named Clara Marie
By Christhel L. Dayrit

    December 31, 2019, the date that started to change the world. It is the day when China had the first Covid19 patient; and afterwards infected the whole world. This is Clara Marie; I am going to tell you how the said virus changed everything in the world and my entire life before they kill me and delete me from the census of the living.

  It all goes back in February 2021, when the New President of America took the seat of United States. I was then an 18-year-old girl who just got her debut in the house simply eating cake and spaghetti that my brother ordered online. It was still the time where covid19 is hot in the list; where wearing face mask and face shield is strictly mandatory. And by the way, I am a Filipina who lives in one of the cities of Pampanga which I won’t tell you the details for my family safety . If you live here, you will see that my neighbors are different; none wears mask and face shield when going outside of their house. I spent most of my entire day attending online classes and watching Kdramas.

We are four in the family. My mother is an office worker who always goes home late, my father is a businessman who works in the capital who rarely go home and my brother is an architect who lives in Singapore. So basically, I usually lived alone in our house having my classes on the screen of my laptop.
   
I enjoyed my life that time  especially when I had fun time conversing with my classmates online. My phone is always full of messages from our group chat. It was a happy time where it makes you forget about the viruses surrounding our country.

Everything started to get dark when two of my classmates were reported positive of Covid 19; we all got scared. We don’t know what to do; for a week I could not sleep well.

One in those days, when my closest friend Sherry asked me to meet her. I know that my parents won’t allow me, yet Sherry really wanted to meet me because she wanted to tell me something very important concerning our friends who got infected by the virus. So, I asked my parents, yet they did not allow me. I had no choice but to simply have a video call with her. I became worried that Sherry is not answering my call.

3:37am that midnight, my phone rang. I woke up and checked whose calling - it was Sherry. I immediately answered her call hoping that she’s fine.

“Clara, please go outside of your house now!” said Sherry hesitantly.
I immediately got up and quietly opened the door and walked down the stairs, for I might get heard by my parents.
I went outside and saw Sherry crying;
“Clara, I have news for you”, said Sherry who kept crying and coughing.
“Sherry please stop crying or don’t make it too loud; it’s mid 3am.” I emphasized. “Sorry, but I really can’t” she nervously said. “Please tell me what happened ---” as I was still talking, she slowly calmed and said, “Before Jenny and Ken infected by the virus, I was with them, same with Paul and Trixie.”

I was shocked, I don’t know that moment if I need to distance from her or not for I might offend her. When I opened my mouth to say something, she suddenly said, “Jenny and Ken are dead and now cremated. Paul was declared positive with the virus and worse is that Trixie died before she received the result of the swab test.” My eyes got dark by her statements and got even darker when she said, “After I saw the result of my swab test, I ran and hid; now they are looking for me. So, please keep it a secret. Bye gotta go!” she ran towards the dark shadow and no longer saw her presence. I was not able to say something before she went away. Because of her news, I was not able to sleep that day.

In the morning, Sherry’s parents called me. My hands were shaking; not knowing if I need to answer or not ignore her call. But my finger is uncontrollable; it just pressed the button,
“Hello, Clara.” she said.
“Yes, Tita” unconsciously answered fearing that she will ask about the whereabouts of Sherry.