“Bra Man, show them how you zap the virus.”
She held the phone up so they could watch him twirling and ninja-ing in the living room.
“What’s that on his face?” Gramps asked.
“Claudie’s bra,” Syl said, and Gramps howled with laughter, too.
Moma got ready for work. She told Max that he had to take off the bra to eat and brush his teeth and sleep. After she left for her shift, Claudia and Bra Man went out on the balcony with the pot lids to cheer her on.
At bedtime, Bra Man refused to take off the mask. He climbed into bed with all his gear on, hair still tufted.
“Are you sure you can breathe?” Claudia asked him.
“Eeeee!” said Bra Man through the lacy cup.
•
That night, Claudia fell asleep faster than she had in weeks. Usually Fear kept her up, whispering its terrifying “what ifs.”
What if Syl catches the virus?
What if Moma does?
What if Max does?
Fear finally gave her a break. She slept peacefully for several hours.
Then, as clearly as if she’d spoken the words aloud herself, she heard, “What if Max can’t breathe with a bra tied over his nose and mouth?”
Her eyes opened in the dark. She listened.
Nothing.
Claudia sprang out of her bed and over to Max’s. It was empty, the covers tossed back.
“Max?”
The bathroom light was on, but no Max. She checked Moma’s room. He wasn’t in her bed, or under it, or in the closet, or in any of the places he hid as Spidey Max.
“Bra Man? I don’t think this is funny!”
She searched the rest of the apartment — behind the furniture, behind the living-room drapes. Fear spattered her with goosebumps.
Then a horrible thought came to her: What if he went outside?
“He wouldn’t,” Claudia said out loud.
Only Moma went out, to work or get groceries, always masked and gloved.
Claudia slid open the door to the balcony and stepped out into the night. The city seemed quieter. Below, where the ambulances and the frontline workers came and went, the hospital glowed, light flooding the street.
A small goggled figure stood there, tufts sticking out all over his head, twirling a bright swim noodle and kicking the air.
“Eeeeee! ZAP, ZAP, ZAP!”
“Max!” Claudia shouted down. “Get back inside right now!”
He craned to look up at Claudia three stories above. “I’M BRA MAN AND I’M PROTECTING EVERYBODY!”
“No, you’re not! It’s dangerous! You’re not supposed to leave the building!”
This only made Bra Man kick so hard at the virus that he nearly lost his balance. He slashed with the noodle.
Even if she convinced him to come in, he couldn’t get back in the building without the keys. Or had he taken them?
She hurried back inside. The spare keys were in the bowl on the hall table. She snatched them up.
That was when she saw Fear for the first time.
It was bigger than she’d imagined. Huge! No longer Fear, now it was FEAR, filling the whole hall, blocking her way.
Her breath stopped. All of her did.
Then she pictured Bra Man battling the invisible virus. Twirling and slashing. “Eeeeee! ZAP, ZAP, ZAP!” A blur of movement. An action figure.
She heard Moma say, “You’re my superhero.”
Claudia kicked at FEAR, but nothing happened.
She beat it with her fists and screamed, “GET OUT OF MY WAY!”
Surprised, FEAR shrank enough for Claudia to squeeze past. Before she opened the door, she glared over her shoulder at Fear.
Her fear.
“I don’t want you here when we get back,” she told it. “Or ever.”
And in case it didn’t get the message, she slammed the door on her way out.
8
Imagine
It started one night in Apartment 3C with Conner’s dad muttering to himself as he shifted things around in the freezer. It sounded like he was tossing bricks.
He turned to Conner and Eden at the kitchen table. The stubble on his head reminded Conner of fur rearing on a dog’s back.
“Did you two eat all the ice cream?”
“Yup,” Eden said.
She was drawing another heart-rainbow-unicorn-thank-you picture to tape onto the balcony window. Practically every window of the whole apartment building was plastered with these happy pictures, displayed to boost the morale of the hospital workers.
Conner was doing math, which was starting to make sense, unlike his dad’s moods.
“I risk my life to go shopping and you don’t even leave me any ice cream?”
He might have been joking. Then again, maybe not.
“You drank all the beer,” Conner pointed out.
Eden, still coloring her rainbow, said, “And you smoked all the cigarettes.”
Dad started yelling. Mom, who’d been in the bath, came running, tying her bathrobe around her dripping body.
“Time out, everybody!” she said, hustling Dad away.
“Aw!” Eden threw down her crayon and headed for the bedroom. “Come on, Conner.”
Conner stayed where he was.
“You’re gonna get it,” Eden sang.
After ten minutes or so of arguing in their bedroom, Mom returned alone, her face sagging.
When she saw Conner, she snapped. “I said time out.”
“Why do I have to have a time out because he’s in a bad mood? When I’m in a bad mood, he doesn’t get a time out.”
“Because I’m trying to keep things together here!” Mom yelled.
Conner closed the laptop and slipped it under his arm. “Fine. I’m getting out of here.”
“Leave the computer. You’re on it too much as it is.”
“How am I supposed to do my homework?”
But he left it on the table like she asked. She didn’t need grief from him, too.
Conner went out on the balcony. Claudia was on hers.
“Hi,” he grunted.
“Hi,” she grunted back.
•
In 3A, things weren’t so great either. Two nights ago Claudia was a superhero for rescuing her brother. You’d think he would be grateful, that he’d return the favor in some way.
When she brought Max a bandanna to use as a face covering so she could have her bra back, you’d think he’d do what she asked.
“That’s a Spidey Max scarf. I’m not Spidey Max anymore. I’m Bra Man, protecting everybody from the virus.”
Claudia said she’d make him an actual face mask.
“I’m Bra Man. B-R-A M-A-N.” So he could spell now.
“Moma!” Claudia yelled.
Bra Man understood that he shouldn’t have left the building. He promised never to do it again. Instead, he’d been going out on the balcony to holler and slash the bright orange swim noodle around. Nobody — not their neighbors, not the hospital workers, not the passersby — could miss him. Every one of them saw the bra on his face.
Of course, everybody who knew them would know it was Claudia’s bra.
She explained this to Moma now.
“Claudie-Baby?” Moma said. “Who’s going to know it’s your bra?”
“Who else’s would it be?”
Moma had huge breasts. Syl’s were medium, but she’d taken her underwear with her.
“I understand you’re embarrassed,” Moma said. “But you shouldn’t be. You’re maturing.”
“Maturing” meant sprouting painful blobs.
When Moma said, “I’ll give Max one of my old bras instead,” Claudia wanted to curl up and die. Max’s whole head would fit into one of Moma’s bra cups!
“Don’t do that! Please!” she begged.
Moma got offended then. “I’m not embarrassed about my body. I hope you’re not.”
“Never mind,” Claudia said, throwing up her hands.
She thought about phoning Syl, but why bother? She’d say the same thing. Claudia should love her blobs! Ughh! She stomped off to the balcony, which was the only place in the apartment where she could be alone.
She wasn’t alone. Conner from next door was on his balcony. For sure he would have seen her bra on Max’s face.
Conner said hi, then she did.
It was starting to get dark, the sky rosy, like it was as embarrassed as she was. Conner began to talk about school and how much he missed it. This surprised Claudia because even though he was two grades below her, he had a reputation for getting in trouble. The old Conner would have started making fun of her about Bra Man right away.
“Faizabadi’s doing Zoom classes, but we only have one computer,” he told her. “I can’t always go.”
“I had Mr. Faizabadi in grade five,” Claudia said. “He’s the best.”
“He is!” Conner said.
She sensed him sidling closer.
“I heard you went out,” he said in a low voice.
Claudia looked over at him. His hair was short. He must have had a Zoom cut or been sheared like the twins in 2D. Freckles and pale serious eyes — really serious.
She nodded.
“Nothing happened to you?” Conner asked.
“I was only outside for a couple of minutes. My brother was outside longer. But we’re both fine. My mom works at the hospital and she’s okay. Louis takes Sweet Pea for a walk every day.”
Conner asked, “Do you want to go?”
Claudia drew back. “Where?”
“Out.” He pointed beyond the balcony railing, to the streets and apartments of the outside world.
A shiver ran through Claudia.
She was a good girl. Very good. But where did that ever get her?
“When?” she asked.
“Tonight. Late. We have to wait for them to go to bed.”
“Them” meant the parents.
Claudia glanced back at Moma in the kitchen getting their lunches ready. She would be on the day shift tomorrow, so home tonight. Claudia wouldn’t leave Max alone.
•
Juliet in 4B wasn’t mad at Mom and Pops. They never did anything to make her mad.
But, oh, she was so bored!
One day Pops returned from grocery shopping with a present for her — a book from the Free Library down the street. Normally it was jammed with thrillers and romances. He’d brought a few of those home for Mom, to help with her novel. But that day he’d found a “gem.” He wiped it down with bleach water.
“I think they’ll be canceling Shakespeare in the Park this year. This might make up for it.”
He put the tattered paperback in her hands. Shakespeare’s Words of Wisdom. It was a book of quotations taken from the plays and sonnets.
Claudia from 3A messaged her. Jule, wanna do something? Conners sneaking out tonight. I think Im gonna go 2.
Wha?????? She answered.
Fed up. We’ll be careful! C is asking some others. Please come or I wont go.
Juliet lay on her bed with Shakespeare’s Words of Wisdom on her chest. In the other room she could hear Mom reading out the latest chapter of her terrible novel to Pops.
She opened the book at random and put her finger on a line.
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
“You got that right, Willy.” There was nothing to do! The hours felt sooo looong! “So, should I go?” she asked out loud.
She closed and opened the book again. Stabbed her finger on the page.
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!
That meant no. What if Mom and Pops woke up and found her gone? They’d be so worried. So disappointed in her.
For several minutes she lay with her eyes closed.
“One more try.”
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
•
Reo answered her ten seconds later, as usual.
Yes!!!
•
In 4A, Danila and Mimi had created a whole city out of painted stones. Dad got them started on the project to keep them busy because Mom was distracted with worry. Auntie Susie was still stuck on the cruise ship and, even though she’d been locked in her tiny cabin all this time, she’d caught the Grown-up Virus. Headache, fever, cough. She could barely get out of bed. It hurt her to breathe.
So middle people got it, too, not just old people like Mrs. Watts. Even kids could be infected. Sometimes their toes turned purple, or they didn’t know they had it, which accidentally spread the virus. This was why they all had to stay apart.
Mom was on the phone with Auntie Susie all the time, and with Grandma, and with the government, trying to get them to bring Auntie Susie home. She kept crying to Grandma that if Auntie Susie died, it would be her fault.
“Auntie Susie won’t die, will she?” Mimi asked Danila.
Danila said, “No!” But she actually wasn’t sure.
At his worksite, Dad filled his pocket with stones and brought them home at the end of every day. Danila and Mimi washed them in the bathroom sink, then left them on the vanity to dry. In the morning they painted them in bright colors and decorated them with rainbows and hearts and flowers. They painted letters to spell out LOVE and STAY SAFE and APART BUT TOGETHER.
Every single stone Danila painted was a wish for Auntie Susie to come home.
The sisters deposited the stones around the building to cheer everybody up. They put a lot of work into the project.
Then Mr. Chu phoned to say he couldn’t vacuum properly with rocks all over the place. Could they please pick them up?
“Fine,” Danila said.
They decided to keep the flower stones and make a garden. Some of the bigger ones they repainted as houses. Then they asked Dad to bring bigger stones. Then bricks. Also, more paint!
The bricks became apartment buildings, except for the one that they placed horizontally. That was the hospital.
“This is the apartment building we’ll live in with Auntie Susie when she comes home,” Mimi said. She surrounded it with stone flowers and her Polly Pocket dolls.
Mom came out of the bedroom and stubbed her toe on the hospital. Instantly, her eyes became Laser Zappers.
“I can’t take two steps in this place without stepping on a rock!”
She limped to the bathroom and slammed the door. The tap came on full blast to cover the sound of her crying. Danila and Mimi could still hear her. They heard her crying at night, too, when she thought they were asleep.
Crying was the new normal in 4A.
Danila gathered the stones in the hem of her shirt. Mimi did the same. They went out on the balcony and started dropping them over the railing. Nobody was passing by on the street below. They checked.
Meena from 2A must have looked out the window and noticed that it was raining colored stones because she came out on her balcony, looked up at them and shrugged.
“What’s up?” she was saying.
“I can’t stand this anymore!” Danila shouted down. She grabbed hanks of her own hair and yanked.
Mimi peeked over the railing and goggled her eyes. “Me neither!”
Meena nodded, circling her finger beside her head. She was climbing the walls, too.
•
That night, when Jessica signed to Meena that they were going to sneak out later, Meena texted Danila right away.
•
Jessica agreed to go because of Jacob. He’d asked Mom for a needle and thread, which she delightedly handed over, thinking he was actua
lly going to sew something (as if). Instead, he strung each fly onto a long thread, which he tacked to the ceiling above his bed. He lay there for hours with his arms crossed behind his head, now and then blowing, setting in motion the small swarm above him.
“You are seriously disturbed,” Jessica told him. “I can’t stand living with you another minute!”
•
Of course they invited Louis. He was the only one who had left the building recently. They felt braver in his company.
•
Nobody invited the cave twins from 2D, but they came anyway.
Earlier that day, they Zoom-bombed Doodoo’s work meeting. Doodoo and his co-workers were very surprised to see a pair of shirtless cave boys appear on the screen, grunting and scratching under their skinny arms.
“Ooaw-eek!” they crowed in Cave.
“Ivan! Alek!” Doodoo roared.
Who? Ooak and Eek looked at each other and shrugged just before Doodoo burst into their cave like a woolly mammoth on a rampage, grabbed an ear on each of their shaved heads and twisted.
The twins yelled, “OWWW!!!” which is one of the words that is the same in English and Cave.
Doodoo took away the laptop and said they couldn’t use it for a month.
After the 7:00 p.m. pot banging, the cave twins stayed out on the balcony to work on their spearheads, which was when they overheard Juliet and Reo talking about escaping.
Ooak pointed to Eek and Eek pointed to Ooak. They both nodded. “Oo!”
•
Now here they all were — except for Max and Sam, sleeping safely in their beds, and Jacob, his earbuds jammed in so tight he didn’t hear Jessica sneak out.
They gathered in the empty street behind the building, all of them masked. All of them sleepy and nervous, a little afraid. Excited, too.
The twins first — then the others, one by one — lifted the edges of their masks and inhaled the night air.
No cooking odors. No cooped-up body smells. No burning disinfectant.
No city smells either. No car exhaust or garbage from the bins next to the playground. No cigarette smoke from the folks who sat around on the playground benches at night. The playground was behind yellow tape.
There wasn’t anybody else. They looked left and right. Not a single person besides them.
Sunny Days Inside Page 10