Chapter 3 March 2020
Casey took a last glance around her Kingston apartment to make sure she had packed everything. She saw the bare bed, empty wardrobes and cupboards, and was satisfied they were cleaner and in better repair than they had been when she moved in. She had had good moments within the small space over the past few years. She'd fallen in and out of love a couple of times, made friendships which would last a life-time and worked hard to gain the qualifications which meant she would move on to bigger and better things and…
She paused and sat down heavily on the bare mattress.
Would she?
There was no one in the world right now who could answer that question, and that was really disturbing.
Casey liked order. She liked her life to follow carefully laid plans and she considered herself extremely lucky that most of the plans she had formed when she'd left home to go to college had been executed exactly as she had scheduled. Her courses had been worthwhile and fulfilling. They had guided her into a first-class specialty which, with good grades, meant an excellent career as a lawyer was peaking over the horizon. There were just a few more assignments to complete, a couple of moot courts to carry out, and the culminating law exams, which would see her in a position to switch from the lower ranking internships she had been balancing alongside her classes, to full positions at respectable law chambers. It would mean a move to a new city, of course. She wouldn't want to stay here. Casey liked Kingston and everything, but she was ready to start working in Toronto.
Yes, in just a few months, Casey would graduate from university, from the last remnants of childhood, and move on into her independent adult life.
So why the hell was she moving out of her apartment now?
In the pocket of her jeans, her phone rang. It cut jarringly into the silence of the room. She slipped the device from the pocket and slid her finger across to answer it.
"Hi Mom. Yeah, I'm just leaving now. Car's packed. I'll pop the key through the agent's door on my way past. I should be with you by three. Don't worry. I've packed sandwiches, so I won't need to go into the services, and I haven't drunk anything since last night, so I shouldn't need the bathroom until I get home."
Nora nodded to herself as she watched Robbie playing in the family room while she made breakfast.
"That's great, Case. I'll be so relieved when you and Derek are home. George spoke to him the day before yesterday, and he'll be on the road fairly soon too. I think he was hoping he could wait this out in his old student house, but the college has shut down all the Frat Houses. Apparently, U of T have ten cases already and Queens are taking no chances."
Casey pulled a face. "Personally, I think you should make him sleep in the garden for two weeks, you know, just to make sure."
"It's March, Casey. Be reasonable. I know global warming is worsening, but I wouldn't make my worst enemy sleep in the garden in March."
"I'm not asking you to, Mom. I'm asking you to make my worst enemy sleep in the garden."
They both chuckled at this. Casey and Derek were not quite as antagonistic as they had been as teens. But Nora did wonder what it was going to be like with all the family back under one roof for the duration.
Casey sighed. "I'm not really sure how to handle this, Mom. I mean, how long is it going to last? I know we've been told to go home, but for how long exactly? I mean, will I actually get to graduate?"
Nora closed her eyes at the question and then pulled herself together. "It will be fine, Case. They are erring on the side of caution. Just a couple of weeks and then everything will be back up and running again. We just need to be sensible and stay indoors, that's all. Edwin has been on-line and has bulk ordered lots of hand gel and face masks. One of George's clients paid him in bottles of bleach yesterday, and Lizzie has been spring cleaning since last Friday. Obviously, things will be a little…close for a while, I mean we are talking eight people sharing two bathrooms, but we'll manage. We always do."
Casey took a deep breath. "I guess. Look mom, I should get going. I need to drop the keys off and get on the road. I'll call you when I stop for lunch."
"Perfect! Love you!"
"Love you!"
Derek Venturi was not a happy man. He did not enjoy taking orders, and he particularly hated taking orders which altered his carefully laid plans. But most of all he hated anything which limited his social life.
Of course, Derek's efforts were not the carefully crafted, heavily documented, colour-coded, and indexed plans which Casey produced. He rarely wrote anything down and he was unlikely to discuss the whole plan with anyone else. But in his mind, they were fully formed and specific in their nature. They usually involved the same things: a party, some food and lots of people – including plenty of the female variety.
And hockey. They always involved hockey.
He had managed ok at college…sort of. He had worked harder than he had at school, because the competition from other players was stronger and he needed to avoid being dropped from the draft programme. He was never going to reach the academic heights his step-sister was achieving, but then he wouldn't want to. Derek Venturi wanted to make it to the big time – preferably with a supermodel on his arm and a sports car in his garage. He was doing better than ok with the hockey, and had high hopes of being picked up by a major team that year. But if he was being realistic, until yesterday, the only thing going entirely to plan had been his hockey career.
Yesterday, even that had gone down the pan.
Hockey is a sport and sport is an entertainment. It exists so that non-sporty people can spend large amounts of money to go and watch a game, whilst dreaming that they are one of the players on the ice. Sport needs large numbers of spectators to survive. It needs people.
As of yesterday, all spectator sport in Canada was banned.
Well, not "banned" exactly, but it felt like it to Derek. New phrases which scared the living shit out of him were now common-place. It was "illegal" to host a hockey game. It was "illegal" to run a hockey training session. It was illegal to sit in a bar with your friends and watch hockey on the TV.
Of course, it was also illegal to do all of the above with soccer, rugby, NFL and a whole raft of other sports. It was also illegal to go to watch a movie in a theatre, to hold a beach party. It was illegal to watch your child's school play. Hell, it was illegal for a school to even put on a school play! (Not that those last two applied to Derek. But he'd listened to Marti whinge about it on the phone last night. Her first starring role had been postponed indefinitely.)
Any gathering above a certain size would now come with serious consequences. Anyone who worked in an industry which relied on freedom of movement and large crowds was in serious shit. About the only place you could go and see more than five other people was the supermarket. And if you did, well then you had to go prepared. Face masks, hand gel and a positive hatred of your fellow man. No bending down to pick up a dropped shopping list for an elderly customer. No reaching for something high up for an attractive short arse. Then of course there were the queues. Long, winding snakes of people waiting semi-patiently to go into the supermarket in the first place. Bouncers on the doors. Arrows on the floor.
It had been just a week since Canada had stopped watching the pandemic situation from afar and begun to live it for themselves.
At first, Derek had viewed the idea of a country – nah – worldwide lockdown as something of a novelty. Think opportunistic bar owners holding behind-closed-door "lock-ins", an enforced vacation with a convenient female (he'd have found a girl) and nowhere in particular to go.
Then the hockey coach had broken the news.
No on-site training.
No in-person team meetings.
No off-season friendlies.
No World Tour or draft.
And the absolute killer.
No Frat Houses.
And the phone call from Dad.
"Get your ass home."
Do not pass go. Do not stop for a quick hook-up. Do not find a convenient place elsewhere to be.
"I know what you are like, Derek. Any opportunity to break the rules and you'll take it. But that was before. We're at the start of a pandemic. I've spoken to people who know about this, and it really is life or death. Your death if you don't follow the rules this time. Come home and keep both your mums happy. And your sisters."
"And my brothers?" Derek had quipped.
"Thankfully, Robbie is too young to be aware of what is going on. And Edwin…"
"Yeah, dad. Edwin?"
George Venturi sighed. "Edwin is already seeing it as a money-making opportunity. He's kitted us out with all sorts of tech I'm not entirely sure we need. The garage is being used as a storeroom for face masks and alcohol gel, and I'm just too tired to fight anymore." George sneezed.
"Never mind the fact that we are second guessing every time someone in the family so much as gets a speck of dust up their nose and sneezes."
"I thought sneezing wasn't a symptom?" Derek interjected. At the other end of the phone. George smiled a genuine smile. Derek was actually paying attention to the real world.
"It's not listed as one of the main symptoms, but I was talking to a client of mine – research scientist I'm helping with a moving traffic violation outside the teaching hospital. He says we're only being told the half of it. Mainly because we only know the half of it."
That had been two days ago. Derek had prevaricated for 24 hours, seen the rest of his house gradually empty, then he had come to the conclusion he really didn't have any choice.
He started to pack. Fortunately, Derek had plenty of room to get all of his belongings into his car. When he had first come out to Queens, he had had to share the journey with Casey and her belongings. But Casey had been given a "new" car as a twenty-first birthday present from her father. So, he was free to fill his own vehicle with as much stuff as he wanted. He also didn't need to co-ordinate with his step-sister about the return journey.
Casey.
He allowed his thoughts to drift in her direction. He didn't see very much of her these days. They had very different lives at college. Different transport to and from college. And somehow, seemed to keep separate social lives even when they returned home. When had he last spoken to Casey in person? Christmas?
No doubt, she was also on her way home. Probably had packed as soon as the government announcements had been made. She wasn't one to break the law – especially given she was training to be a lawyer. Limitations on Casey's social life would be far less of an issue. She had no social life. Derek paused. Or maybe she was now the life and soul of the party. He had no idea anymore.
He pulled the door to his house closed behind him, posted his keys in the postbox and made his way to the car.
The roads were quieter than usual. Mainly because both Derek and Casey had left it late leaving Queens. Most sensible people had shut up shop and gone home earlier in the week. It was only the stragglers who were still wending their way to wherever they thought they would be safest.
Though neither Derek nor Casey planned to use public washrooms on the journey home, they did still need to take a break. After a couple of hours, Casey hit the turn signal on her car and eased carefully onto the off ramp at the most convenient service station.
Just as the roads had been, the parking lot was empty. A handful of weary travellers looking warily at each other as if aliens had landed and taken over fifty percent of the population and they were trying to work out whether you were human.
Casey pulled into a space some distance from the main building, switched off the engine and contemplated what to do next. She didn't need to use the washroom, but she should probably stretch her legs. She was quite practiced in driving between London and Kingston by now, but it didn't stop her legs from stiffening up after a couple of hours. Something which the dancer in her hated. Grabbing her purse, she opened the car door and went to sit at a vacant picnic table nearby. Then, more out of a sense of boredom than necessity, Casey phoned home again.
By the time Derek arrived at the service station, Casey had gone.
Unbeknownst to both of them, he parked in the same parking space and sat on the same picnic bench. He'd eaten his lunch whilst driving within the first hour of leaving Kingston, but there was still a bag of potato chips which needed finishing off, so he took them to the bench and sat on the table, his feet on the seat.
Below him, cars rushed by on their urgent journeys. Behind him, the building had brand new signs promoting face masks, hand washing and social distancing. He reflected woefully that the term "social distancing" was an insulting term for someone who liked parties as much as he did. It was possibly also an oxymoron.
And then he chuckled and wondered what Casey would make of him remembering the term. He was still smiling to himself when his phone rang.
Casey's mind was now racing nineteen to the dozen, almost as fast as the car she was driving. Everything had changed in the space of one phone call, and she was still struggling to process it all. Her destination was no longer London, her journey time had increased by ninety minutes, and when she arrived there…what then? She bit at her fingernail nervously, watching the road ahead of her.
What then?
Derek answered the phone with a chip in his mouth and a jocular tone. He could see it was from the home landline. He assumed it was his father ringing to check he was actually making the journey.
"Dad, quite fretting. I'm on my way. I'll be with you in about three hours." He began, crunching noisily on his potato chips.
A voice spoke, and instantly he knew something was wrong.
It was Edwin and his voice was weak, wobbly and like the Edwin he remembered around the time their parents had separated.
"It's me, Derek." Edwin coughed in an attempt to remove emotion from his voice. "Dad's in hospital. He collapsed with breathing problems after breakfast this morning. They think he has the coronavirus."
Derek stopped mid-chew. "Fuck!"
What else could he say? He hadn't been paying much attention to the news, but it was hard to miss the fact the mortality rate was currently very high. Derek was very fond of his father – despite their differences. Despite their similarities.
"Yeah. We were lucky, there was an ambulance nearby which picked up the call. They took him straight to one of those special intensive care units. Nora wasn't allowed to go with him. She's in bits. And the kids are freaked out because, honestly, it was like watching a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie. They came into the house dressed like we had E.T. in Marti's toy cupboard."
"What did they say about dad?" Derek pushed.
Edwin swallowed hard. "They can't really tell. Apparently, there is a test they can do, but it's not a quick test – it takes a couple of days, and it's only available once you're admitted to hospital. But, D, he doesn't look good. He was really grey, and he was mumbling. Like he was on something. All they would say is they will call Nora when they have more details to give her. I managed to get Dad an old iPad so that he can video call home, but the paramedics seemed to think it will be some time before he's well enough to use it."
Derek was now working through a large repertoire of curses. Edwin interrupted him.
"Derek! For fuck's sake! Stop that and just listen. Updating you is only part of why I'm calling. Bro, you can't come home."
The elder brother stopped mid-curse. "What?!"
"You're not allowed to come home. We'll be in trouble with the authorities if you do come home. We've been served with a quarantine notice. Because you've been living away from home so long, and because they are fairly certain this is coronavirus, you're going to have to go and wait this out somewhere else."
Derek said nothing and before words could frame themselves in his mind, Edwin had disappeared from the end of the call, and Nora was speaking. He voice was thick with emotion.
"Derek, honey, I'm SO sorry. I just want to reassure you that your dad is in the very best hands. I had a call from the doctor on his ward. I did her window treatment last Christmas. It wasn't straight-forward and I got her out of a hole, so she felt she owed me the call. It will be several days before the labs confirm that it's coronavirus, but she says she doesn't need the test result to be sure. It is coronavirus. She says George has much on his side to be positive about. He's healthy, relatively young and he isn't a smoker. She also thinks we've reacted very quickly which is also a good thing."
"I want to see him." Derek managed.
There was a long pause. "Derek, they won't even let me see him. They aren't letting anyone into the hospital unless they are staff or a patient. Not even little children are allowed to have a parent with them. Although, thankfully it doesn't seem to be hitting the littlies as badly. We just have to wait and let them do their jobs. Besides, they've slapped a quarantine order on us. We aren't allowed to let anyone into the house. Which brings me to the other bit of our news. I know you have given up your rooms in Kingston, so turning around isn't feasible. But I've spoken to my mother, and you can go there for the duration. Hopefully it will only be a couple of weeks, but at least it's a safe roof over your head. The site hadn't opened for the season yet and she's gone to stay with her sister in Hamilton. I'll text you the directions and the instructions for getting in. I'd get going if I were you. You'll want to unpack and go to a grocery store to stock up."
There followed a lengthy list of dos and don'ts at the end of which Derek found himself neatly rounded up and packaged off to Grandma's.
It wasn't until he was on the road with the camp's details programmed into his sat nav that it occurred to him to wonder where Casey would be spending lockdown.
