I'm Coming Home

“Kisses!” Melony exclaims as she reaches out for her husband. They are both in the whirlwind of their morning routine, except this morning would be starting and ending way outside of their norm. She would often slap 5 or 6 kisses on Carters' face before finally making it out the door.

“Have you seen the news lately?” Carter says with an edge in his voice, “That virus thing seems to be getting worse and worse.” His eyes are glued to the local news station as he chows down on his eggs and coffee.

“I don’t know honey”, she sighs, “It’s hard to know what is real and what isn’t these days. Just keep taking those vitamins babe.” Chuckling as she finishes gathering her things, ready to head out the door for another monotonous day at the office. She puts on her coat, picks up her purse, and heads for the front entrance.

“Woah, woah, woah I almost forgot! I know we have our Anniversary dinner planned for tonight, but I wanted to give you something special before you left.” Says Carter as he smoothly walks over to her, warmly embracing her by the front door. He pulls two small jewelry boxes from his pocket and hands her the gift-wrapped one. Melony’s face lights up like it was Christmas morning.

“Oh Carter!” she exclaims with excitement as she hastily rips the wrapping off her gift. She then slowly opens the box, eyes locked on the shiny gold inside. It is a heart-shaped locket with the most beautiful intricate designs. Her small slender fingers move to open the locket, revealing a photo of the two of them from the night that Carter had proposed to her. On the other half, it reads in tiny letters ‘Always’. Melony’s face starts to scrunch up a bit, and a heavy tear falls from one eye.

“I love it, I love you.” She says adoringly, looking at him with the warmest of smiles, they kiss, just like it was their first.

“I got myself a matching one, so that way when we are apart, and thinking of one another we have a reminder close to our hearts.” He smiles at her, knowing that she gets a kick out of it when he gets all poetic on her. Carter is a writer who works from his home office, so his words are often carefully chosen and delightfully elegant whilst wearing sweatpants. “Oh! One more thing before you leave. I know you don’t take the virus seriously, but I got you this mask.” He picks up a bag and hands her a full-face respirator. Still smiling.

“Carter!” she exclaims with a giggle. Feeling like he is being a bit dramatic about the whole thing.

“If you won’t stay home at least keep it in your car ok. Just in case.” He says with more seriousness than usual.

“Ok OK! I love you, but I’ve got to go or I’m gonna be late.” As she makes the walk from the front door to her car, she notices that there is almost no one on the street. I guess they all watch that crap news station too. She gets in her car and connects her phone, filling the air with her favorite tunes. Just as she is about to pull away she notices the couple across the street. They are both masked, he is pulling her slumped body to the car as she coughs endlessly. That’s concerning. But Melony no sooner pushes the fears from her mind and begins her drive. Usually, she spends an hour or so bumper to bumper in the worst of Los Angeles traffic. The trip today feels strange and desolate. As if half of the city had stayed home. There are so few cars on the road that she arrives to work half an hour early, as opposed to her customary ten minutes late.

Melony makes her way up the elevator to her office building. The office building is equally as quiet. A type of quiet that this city has not seen in a century most likely. Melony is the Communications Coordinator for Hartford and Sons Law Office. In other words, she is a glorified receptionist. She makes her way to her desk and begins mindlessly performing her usual opening tasks. Her boss, Mr. Hartford exits his office down the hallway with the most concerned look on his face.

“Melony, Oh you’re here? Did you not get my message? They are locking the whole city down because of this virus. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it on the news!” He says in a rushed urgent tone. Almost sounding sick himself as he reaches for a crumpled napkin in his pocket and grossly smears it all over his nose, “ Our office in New York has been hit pretty hard. No one is coming in until further notice”, he then turns and shuffles down the hallway back to his office, “I’m not feeling so great myself, so I’m isolating in my suite. Please do not bother me.” He then slips away into his office.

Melonie’s thoughts begin to race a bit. Everything she had seen on TV she had not taken seriously. Could this be harming people to this degree? She had always reveled in her ability to ignore the mainstream media, but perhaps she’s missed something big. Realizing that her boss was ill and dripping boogers everywhere, she swiftly runs to the bathroom to wash her hands and face. She is then startled by the loud ring of her cell phone in her pocket. The screen reads My Carter <3. She picks up the phone hoping to hear his soothing voice, only this time he sounds like he is holding back tears.

“Melony… my Mom. She’s gone” his voice shakily trails off as he explains to Melony that New York has been hit hard by the virus and in just the last few hours her life had slipped away. That the entire country had been hit suddenly, and somehow their area had been one of the last to see the full effects. “They are saying that once infected most people are dying within 2 – 3 hours! The death rate is 80%! We could see over 200 million Americans die alone” he says, basically scream crying into the phone at her. “You have to get back home Mel! You need to put on that mask I gave you and get back here. We can ride this out at home…” Carter is sobbing into the phone, fear-stricken over his current, and possible future loss. Melony and Carter share a moment on the phone, not knowing if this morning would be the last time, they would ever see one another. Melonie’s fingers were clutched tightly to the locket he had given her this morning, as were his.

“I love you, I’m coming home,” Melony says with fear in her heart. She packed her things back into her bag and steals the hand sanitizer off one of her coworker’s desks. This might come in handy, she thought to herself and proceeded to slather her hands in it. She then made her way down the hallway hesitantly to check on her boss. “Mr. Hartford, “she said as she lightly knocked on the door, using her shirt to cover her nose and mouth. His office door was made of glass, and she could see him sitting at his desk with his head down. Melony lightly cracks the door open and says his name a bit louder this time. “Mr. Hartford?” as she fully opens to door to get a look, she can see that his face is head down in a pool of blood! A pool that's now leaked onto the floor, staining the once beautiful granite bright red. She gasps in horror. It happened so quickly. Melany stumbles backward tripping and falling onto her butt. Sobbing in fear. Am I infected? She runs back to the bathroom again to wash profusely this time. In a panic, she attempts to dial 911 but instead gets a busy signal. A busy signal?!

She scurries to hail the elevator, but it seems to have stopped on another floor. In a rush of impatience, she runs to the stairwell, making her way down to the parking lot. Scanning the area as she walks to her car, still covering her nose and mouth with her shirt, hoping to avoid people completely until she can get that mask on.

“Hey!” A scratchy panicked voice comes from somewhere behind her, “You got any spare food for me today?” Melony does not even look but recognizes the voice as one of the homeless people that she often gives food or change. She is normally overjoyed to help but this time is stricken with fear at the thought of anyone coming close to her.

“I’m sorry” is all she can muster up as she sprints to her car slamming and locking the doors. Fumbling around as she scrambles to put on the respirator that her husband had given her just this morning. Her hand over her locket is the only form of comfort she currently has. She pulls the locket in front of her face and opens it, again basking in the joyful memory from this photo. She screeches out of the parking garage onto the dead silent streets of Los Angeles. The city is completely clear aside from groups of homeless people huddled against buildings to avoid the crushing sun.

She makes it about halfway through her drive home when in the distance, she sees a blockade. Rows and rows of cars stopped in front of her. Over a loudspeaker, she can hear The National Guard giving instructions. “Please stay in your vehicles until an officer comes to your car. Men in hazmat suits walking row by row, car by car, speaking with the people inside. She could not tell what they were saying, but she could see that whatever was said was angering some of the other passengers. And that they were pulling off to the side and racing off in other directions. Finally, a squirrelly man in a hazmat suit approaches with a military man also masked, rifle in hand. There is no entry or exit through this area. There is a shelter just up the street where they can check you in and check you for the virus. But you are going to have to quarantine there until this is all clear. You are in a heavily affected area that has hit peak infection at about 8 am this morning.

“No! You do not understand. I am just going home I live ten minutes from here. I just want to get home and stay with my husband, please.” She says hoarsely, trying to keep from crying.

“Sorry Mam, like I said this is a quarantine zone. You don’t want to go home and get him sick, do you?” and before she had a chance to even reply they trudged off to the other cars behind hers. A woman then directs her to turn around, back the way she came. But Mel has a better idea. She knows of an underpass a few blocks down that leads to a maintenance entry to the highway she needed to get on. They cannot have blocked all the roads. Turning on the radio, all she hears is mass tragedy and infection. Since last night, what had started in the UK made its way over to the US. Wiping out millions. The only thing in her mind now was how can we keep from getting infected.

As she approaches the underpass, she can see the opening is still there and that there is not any military in sight. Her tiny sedan slips through the concrete barriers with ease. She floors it onto the highway, pushing her car to its limit if only to get home a moment sooner.

“I’m coming home” she whispers.