53
Knowing her only as a strong woman his entire life, the threat of pandemic or a ruthless father never quenched her fury. She fought everything even when Jerry’s disease ravaged the world.
He had given up his bedroom so that he wouldn’t have to watch her rush at noon, his lunchbreak, and at five, the end of the day, to the bathroom because she sat in her bedroom all day holding in her piss. He even put in a small refrigerator. He had tried to be the dutiful son, but it was wearing on his patience.
“I know, Ma.”
“Mijo, I don’t like your John Wayne voice. I don’t like it.”
“Come on out, Ma.” Making his voice chime with a little more twang.
As she stepped out of the bedroom, she looked around as if to say, this is what the house looked like at 10 am on a Tuesday. “What are we going to do?”
Juan walked back to the table where his laptop was and grabbed his phone. The phone was completely black. He stared at it thinking how odd that was. The power was out. His phone was black as if the battery had died. Maybe it had died? He couldn’t remember the last time he charged it.
“My phone is out.”
“Oh Mijo!”
“It’s fine, Ma.”
“No. This is no good.” She said shaking her head and a finger before going back into her bedroom.
He paused thinking he should leave the fridge closed. That was 101. Then he felt the heat starting already to come in, so he thought to start opening windows when he heard voices coming from outside.
“Hey Ma, I’m going to talk to the neighbors I’ll be right back.”
“Keep distance!” She shouted from behind the door.
“I know.”
Social distancing had become the new norm. It sounded like a catchphrase from some kind of marketing exec. Then all of a sudden, it was everywhere.
That was bef everything changed forever. Trevon and Alfie stood in the street practically shouting at each other. When Juan saw them, he paused and stuck his head back into the door and grabbed his mask. The mask had become a vital part of societal norms. Not that the virus even existed anymore. The latest news reports said Jerry’s disease was the thing of the past, now they were stuck dealing with mutations of the original outbreak. But what would be next? Who knew? Most had learned throughout everything that the news reports were wrong more than they were right. Something was always coming next. “Hey guys, how are you doing?” Juan said walking down his front steps. “This is it, Anselmo told me this was going to happen, and it is exactly what is happening.” Trevon said barely nodding to Alfie. “What’s happening?” Juan asked. “Hey Juan, we have a power outage, and this guy thinks we’re about to enter a new world war.” Alfie said combing his fingers through his hair. “My car won’t start. It’s fried. I’m telling you....” “When did you have a chance to try your car?” Alfie said.