by Burns, Alex
“Good,” he said. “Good. I would hate it if you were sick and I couldn’t be there to help you.”
“Yeah…” I groaned. “This fucking sucks. What are we going to do?”
“We’ll just have to wait it out,” Tristan said, sounded resigned. “They’ve tied our hands here. We don’t really have any other option, do we?”
“I don’t like this,” I said in a whisper.
“Me either, babe. I should have come home sooner. I didn’t think this could happen…”
“Are they going to send you back to Canada?”
“I don’t know. I hope so. I don’t really want to be stuck down here.”
“No…”
“Once this scare is over and they reopen the borders, I’ll be on the first plane out of here.”
I chewed my lip. “I wonder how long that will be?”
“Surely they’ll come up with a cure soon?”
“I hope so. Lucy wasn’t looking too good when I saw her yesterday. Or Alan.”
“They’ve got it?”
“Yeah,” I said, ripping up a scrap of paper near my hand.
“You should probably stay away from them. This thing seems pretty contagious.”
“I told them I’d walk Maggie…”
Tristan sighed. “Do what you have to do, but be careful, okay?”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you too. We’ll be together again soon, try not to worry too much, love.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said.
“Me too. Okay. I’m going to go and see if I can sort out this flight back to Canada.”
“All right. Good luck. Keep in touch.”
“Thanks. And you too.”
We hung up but I didn’t put my phone down. I scrolled through looking for the number I wanted. Thankfully she picked up almost straight away.
“Mum?”
“Alice. Are you all right? I was just about to call you.”
“No. Yes. No. They’ve closed the border and Tristan didn’t make it through in time. He got down to L.A. but they cancelled the flight before his plane left.”
“Oh, honey…” Mum’s voice was full of sympathy and I felt tears well up for the first time. I didn’t say anything for a moment, willing myself to hold it together. I took a few deep breaths and swallowed my tears.
“I don’t know what to do. All this talk of quarantine, and now they’ve closed the border… Mum, I’m scared.”
“Alice, I know you don’t want to, but I really think you should come here. Leave straight away. Pack everything you want or need in your car and come here. Do it quickly and get out before they won’t let you anymore.”
“I don’t know, Mum…” I didn’t want to abandon the little house that Tristan and I had worked so hard for.
“Honey, if things keep going the way they are, it’s only going to get worse. It could get very ugly, in fact. The city could get very dangerous. You’d be safer here.”
I didn’t know what to think. A part of me thought she was probably right, but another part thought she was probably overreacting like usual.
“What about the other two?”
“Sarah’s thinking about it. Tom feels like he’s needed at work, even though that’s the worst place to be right now.”
“Right.”
“If you’re not going to come here, you need to make sure you’ve got enough food and water.”
“I know, Mum. I already stocked up.”
“Good. Please come here, though. I’d feel so much better.”
“I’ll think about it, Mum. Promise.”
I stared at my phone for a good few minutes after we hung up. I felt dazed. Was this really happening? Surely it was just some sort of nightmare and I’d wake up, Tristan would be on his way to Australia, and Lucy would be fine with just a normal cold and everything would go back to normal.
Chapter Seven
It wasn’t until late afternoon that the clouds parted and weak, wintery sunshine peeked through the gap making all the wet leaves and rain drops sparkle. I opened the back door and looked out over the western horizon to see if the sunshine was going to last for a while or just a few minutes. The horizon was clear and blue. I glanced warily at the dark, stormy clouds to the east, but as usual for this time of year, the wind was blowing in from the west. I took it as a sign that it was time to go and walk Maggie. I sent a text to Lucy, letting her know I’d be over soon. I pulled on my coat and boots, grabbed one of the facemasks I’d bought that morning and started walking. I had to cut by the main road for a few minutes. There were a few trucks on the road but not nearly as many as their usually would have been at that time of day. I darted across the road without waiting for the lights to turn. I spent most of the walk worrying about Tristan. What would we do? I was so impatient to see him. The month apart had already been a month too long, and I’d been anticipating seeing him the next day with an intensity that frightened me at times. Now that had been ripped away and I had no idea when I’d see him again. I chewed on my lip, barely paying attention to where I was stepping, worried that it would take months. How long did quarantines usually last? I had no idea.
My phone buzzed. I pulled it out and then stepped in a puddle.
Tristan: Been booked on a flight back to Van. Leave in two hours. Love you.
Me: I love you too. Let me know when you’ve landed. Travel safe. XOX.
His mother would be happy to have him back, I thought morosely. She’d been most disappointed when we’d decided to settle in Australia instead of Canada. We intended on living in Canada again at some point, but it wasn’t going to be any time soon.
I sighed. My breath came out in a little puff. I walked faster, trying to warm up. A woman walking towards me caught my attention. She was on the phone, but not speaking. Tears streamed down her face. I stared at her, unable to stop. She didn’t even glance at me as we passed each other. I turned and watched her for a moment, unsettled.
Ten minutes later, I stood out front of Lucy and Alan’s weatherboard house. I pulled the face-mask out of my pocket and put it on. I had no idea if it would do any good, but better to be safe than sorry.
I knocked on the door. Maggie thumped her way up the hall, barking. I waited for Alan or Lucy to come open the door. I waited and waited, but there was no response other than Maggie’s incessant barking.
I frowned and knocked again.
Waited.
Still nothing.
I figured they were probably sleeping and somehow couldn’t hear the racket Maggie was making, or maybe they were in the toilet or shower or something. I waited a few more minutes (it could have been seconds, it’s hard to be sure when you’re worried and impatient), and then went over and pulled out the loose brick in the fence and grabbed the spare key. Hoping that I wasn’t about to find them in some embarrassing, compromising position, I unlocked the door. Maggie stopped barking and barrelled into me, almost knocking me off my feet. She enthusiastically licked my hands and whined in greeting, wagging her great big shaggy behind so hard that she kept thumping the wall.
“Hello?” I called out, while patting Maggie and trying to avoid any more slobber on my hands.
I walked into the house, Maggie trotting in front of me. I called out again.
“Lucy! Alan! Are you here? It’s Alice.”
I paused in the kitchen. It looked much the same as it had when I’d been here yesterday. I cocked my head. I could hear voices. After a moment I realised it was just the TV.
“Hello?” I called out again. I strode past the kitchen and down to the living room, where the noise of the TV was coming from. I paused at the threshold of the room. It looked like they were both sleeping. They were both buried under a pile of donnas and blankets. Lucy’s hair was a mess, covering most of her face. I couldn’t even see Alan properly. I cursed myself for all the yelling.
“Sorry, guys,” I whispered. I quietly retreated and grabbed Maggie’s lead from where I’d left it on the t
able the day before. She followed me happily enough and I took her down to the dog park. We found a deserted ball and I kicked it around with the playful dog until she got bored of that and wondered off to smell the bushes. I wandered what news and information she was gathering from all the scents. She was utterly engrossed, and I found myself grateful that humans had invented speech and writing, and didn’t need to resort to pissing on things and then later smelling it.
My phone rang as I stood there watching Maggie do her thing.
“Hey, Sarah,” I answered.
“Alice, I’m worried sick. Charlotte’s come down with the red flu!”
“Shit.” I didn’t know what to say. I walked over to a nearby bench and sat down, not caring that it was still wet.
“Two of her classmates have died.” Sarah was breathing quickly. It sounded like she was going to start hyperventilating.
“Oh, fuck.” Tragedies sure do bring out my eloquent side.
“What do I do? What do I do? Those poor children, those poor parents! What do I do? What if Charlotte dies?”
I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes. “Have you seen a doctor? Have you called Tom?” Why was she calling me and not Tom?
“I can’t get on to him, and the hospital turned us away. They said they have no room. I don’t know what to do. My baby can’t die.”
“Charlotte’s not going to die,” I said automatically. “Where are you now?”
“Home. Chris is with her at the moment. I’m… Jesus, Alice. What is this thing? What’s going on?”
I hated hearing my big sister like that. She was normally so in control.
“I don’t know… but… I’m sure it will all be fine. Not everyone who catches it is dying. Lucy and Alan have been sick for days, and they’re still alive.”
Sarah took a few deep breaths.
“You’re right. It will be fine,” she said, sounding slightly calmer. “We’ll nurse her through this. She can’t die. She won’t die.”
“Yes,” I said. “You will. Everything will go back to normal in a few weeks, just wait and see.” I desperately wanted to believe myself.
“Oh, I meant to call you as soon as I saw the news, but Charlotte… Did Tristan make it through before they closed the border?”
“No. He didn’t.” I clenched my jaw.
“Oh, Alice…”
“It’s fine. It’ll be fine. He’ll get through eventually. This way he just gets to spend some extra quality time with his family. His mother’s going to be stoked.”
“Right,” my sister said, sounding rightly skeptical of my forced cheeriness. “Well, for all our sakes I hope this blows over soon.”
“Yeah, me too. Have you told Mum about Charlotte?”
“Not yet. She’d just panic. You know what she’s like.”
I nodded. “Yeah, but she’d want to know.”
“Mmmm. I will. I just… anyway… It’s hard watching her fight this.”
“I know. You guys need to stay healthy for her.” I could only imagine how horrible it was to watch your only child get sick and being helpless to do anything about it. “Give her a hug from me, if you can, and tell her Auntie Alice told her she needs to get better.”
Sarah let out a rather strangled laugh. “Well, she’d do anything for Auntie Alice’s approval, so it might actually work!”
I laughed and then looked up at the sky. More clouds were starting to roll in. “I’d better go. I’m at the dog park with Lucy’s dog and it looks like it’s gonna start raining again.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Keep in touch, yeah? Try Tom again later. He’s probably just snowed under at the hospital.”
“Yeah. I’ll let you know if there’s any developments. Thanks, Alice.”
I wasn’t quite sure what she was thanking me for. “Take care, Sarah. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
I sat there staring into space until Maggie ran up and head butted me. I patted her absentmindedly, hoping against hope that my little niece would pull through and not become a statistic. Charlotte was the first, and so far only, grandchild in the family. We all doted on her. For her to be gone was inconceivable.
I put the lead back on Maggie and nodded at the only other occupant of the dog park as we left. His blue heeler was rabidly chasing a tennis ball back and forth. I wished I was a carefree as the dogs.
I put the mask back on and unlocked Lucy and Alan’s front door. I stood back, allowing Maggie to barrel past me. She ran straight to her water bowl but then just sat in front of it, looking at me. I followed her. It was empty. I filled it up for her and she drank like there was no tomorrow. I watched her, bemused. Once she’d had her fill of water she stood expectantly over her food bowl. I grabbed a handful of kibble from the pantry and popped it in her bowl. She inhaled them and looked at me again, obviously wanting more.
“Sorry, big girl, you’ll ruin your dinner.” I gave her a scratch on the head, but she just stared at me mournfully.
I walked quietly down the hallway, where I could still hear the TV chattering away. The dog trotted after me. Neither of them had moved. Maggie pushed past, thumping me on the leg with her tail. She walked up to Lucy and licked her face with a whine. I was about to pull her back, but I stopped and just stood there like an idiot, holding my breath.
Maggie licked her again, right on the mouth. There was no reaction from Lucy. Maggie barked. Still no response, or even movement from either of them.
I felt clammy all of a sudden. I swayed in the doorway, torn between wanting to run far far away, and going over to check on my best friend. I stared hard, trying to see if she was breathing or not. I couldn’t tell.
“Please be alive, please be alive,” I muttered, hoping like hell that Lucy was about to groan or sit up or something. I slowly walked over to where the dog was sniffing Lucy’s hand, telling myself I was stupid for thinking the worst.
“Lucy?” I reached down and carefully pushed the hair out of her face. Her eyes were closed and her skin had a strange reddy-grey tinge to it. A trickle of blood was seeping out of her ears.
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Lucy! Wake up. Lucy!”
Her head flopped around in a grotesque way. I half gasped, half sobbed and let her fall back onto the pillows. I reached for her limp wrist, trying to find a pulse.
“No, no, no, no, no.”
I have no idea how long I crouched there, my brain not wanting to process what I knew to be true. My breath came faster and faster. I felt like I was suffocating through the mask but I was too scared to take it off.
“Lucy, please…” My vision went blurry as I turned to where Alan was lying.
“Alan?” I pulled his blanket back to see him properly. I stumbled backwards with a gasp. His eyes were open but they weren’t seeing anything. Bloody tears ran down his face. More blood had leaked from his ears and nose. I touched his neck in the futile hope that he still had a pulse, but the coolness of his skin told me everything I needed to know.
“Oh, god,” I sobbed. Maggie whined at me and tried to climb up on to the couch with Alan. I stared at her, barely seeing her through my tears. I didn’t know what to do. I sat there in the middle of their lounge room, tears pouring down my face, wailing for my friends.
I found myself standing out front of their home not entirely sure how I’d gotten there. I pulled the stupid mask off so I could breath properly. This was the home they were meant to raise a family in, grow old together in. I bent over and vomited in Lucy’s carefully manicured flower bed. This could not be happening. I wiped my mouth and tried to settle my erratic breathing.
Nothing in my life so far had prepared me for this. What did you do when you found your best friend and her husband dead in their house? I stood shivering on the porch. I couldn’t just leave them there. People needed to know. Their bodies… my breath hitched again at the thought of them lying there, forever gone, never waking up.
I sank down on the step and sat for a few mi
nutes, looking at the garden Lucy had so carefully planted out. Once I felt like I might be able to speak, I pulled out my phone. Who did you even call in cases like this? It wasn’t exactly an emergency… they were already dead. I closed my eyes again, trying to ward off the tears that wanted to escape.
“Hello, Alice.”
“Mum?” I choked out.
“Are you all right?”
“No,” I managed to get out before my throat closed over and tears welled up again. Damn it. My breath hitched and I tried to get words out, but it was no good. I couldn’t talk without sobbing.
“Alice? What’s wrong?” I could hear the alarm in her voice. I wanted to reassure her but I couldn’t.
“It’s… it’s…” I couldn’t say it. If I said it, it would be real.
“Are you sick? Talk to me, honey.”
I closed my eyes again and leaned forward, resting my forehead on my knees. Breathe. Just breathe.
“Lucy,” I managed to grate out after a few moments. “It’s Lucy.”
“What’s Lucy?” Concern filled her voice and it nearly undid me again. I screwed my face up, trying to keep it all in.
“She’s dead.” There. I’d said it. It was real.
“What? Did you say dead?”
I nodded, not fully registering that she couldn’t see me.
“Alice? What’s going on? I can’t understand you properly.”
I took a few deep breaths and waited until I was reasonably sure I could speak properly again.
“Yeah, she’s dead. Both of them. Her and Alan. I just… I just found them. I don’t know what to do. Mum, what do I do?”
“Oh, honey. Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry.” Her voice started to crack. “What happened? Was it the flu?”
“Yep,” I said. “They both… yeah. What do I do?”
“Where are you? Have you called anyone else?”
“No. Just you. I’m out front of their house.”
“Were you in contact with them?” Worry strummed through Mum’s voice.
“Yeah…” I opened my eyes and blinked. It was getting dark. How long had it been? “I’m gonna die now too, aren’t I?” I blurted out, almost hysterically.