QUARANTINE LOVE
Quarantine Love - Episode 4
©Kayode Odusanya
They were all seated in the living room now; David was back on the long couch, but this time with one of the men from NCDC, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control questioning him. Caroline was seated on the single- eater couch to the left of David, with Toluwani and Kehlani sitting on the arm of her couch on her left and right respectively. The other two men from the NCDC were seated on the two separate couches opposite Caroline. They were of similar physique, slim and of short stature, not big and intimidating like the man that was talking to David. The atmosphere in the room was tense.
They had come with two police men in case they uncounted any resistance, but the police men were outside in the bus they had all come in. Caroline was still angry, and it was odd to see her turn into a protective Lioness when the men had initially charged in. She had started barking words at them with confidence, and asking for the right they had to barge into her house to question her and her friends. But since David wasn’t ready to reveal to them what was really wrong with him, she had to finally back down and let them act on instructions given to them by the state Governor.
Oyo state was one of the few states in the country that wasn’t on total lockdown. People were still allowed to go about their daily activities. The governor took his time to think of the best way to handle the situation, and after the third week of the total lockdown in the major cities of the country, he decided to start mass testing of COVID 19 all over the state. The people of the NCDC also acted on tip-offs. If someone recently got back from Europe, Asia or the Americas in the last couple of weeks, their neighbors were asked to tell on them, if such people didn’t surrender themselves for 14 days isolation. Also, people of the state were encouraged to expose people that showed signs and symptoms of the virus in their neighborhood. That was the governor’s way of nipping the spread of the virus in the bud without totally stopping business activities in the state. People took this serious because of the fear of the virus, and one of Caroline’s neighbors most likely saw David fall earlier, and called the NCDC.
Her parents usually spent most of the weekdays at their farm house about an hour from the city. Sometimes her mom would come home to spend the night midweek to see how they were doing. Most times she would have her sister over, Caroline’s Aunt Dorothy. But today was Thursday, and Aunt Dorothy had gone off with her boyfriend, because she felt one night before their parents arrived won’t do that much harm. Plus, Caroline was 23 years old; old enough to oversee everything around the house, and take care of her little sister. Their other siblings were in boarding school.
One of the men was taking David’s blood now, and Toluwani grabbed Caroline’s hand. She didn’t know if the little girl was scared for her brother, or if the sight of needles gave her the chills. Caroline smiled, wondering how Toluwani would have reacted if her brother was subjected to the NAAT test for detecting corona virus, which involved sticking a thin, long swab down a person’s nostril. That would have freaked her out for sure, Caroline thought.
After taking the blood sample, the man stood up, and so did the other two. “So, we will get back to you within 24 hours.” The man said as he put the pouch containing the test kit under his arm, and started heading to the door. David sat there, rubbing the spot in his arm the needle had gone in with cotton wool.
“Okay sir. So, what happens before then?” Caroline asked as she got up to follow the man.
“I’m sorry, we are going to quarantine you all in the house till then.” One of the other men coming behind Caroline said.
“What? Why?”
“This is the best way to contain the virus.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry; it will be over very soon. It’s just a day.” The man in front of her said, cutting her off.
When Caroline and the three men had gone out of the sight, Toluwani ran to David’s side. “Does it hurt?” She asked with a puzzled look on her face.
“It hurt just for a second, but not anymore.” David said and got off the couch, still rubbing his hand as he walked down the corridor leading out of the house. There was a restroom just by the exit to the left. He walked in, threw the cotton wool into the toilet, flushed, and washed his hand.
When he walked back into the living room, Toluwani and her friend were nowhere in sight. He sat on couch and sighed, thinking of the discomfort he would cause Caroline and her sister. He pulled out his phone and saw a notification of 7 missed calls on the screen. They were all from his mom. He didn’t know how to tell her without freaking her out, so he decided to send her a simple message till he was ready to talk to her. In the text message, he simple wrote, ‘I’m cool mom. I’ll call you in about ten minutes.’ When he hit send and let the phone fall on his lap, Caroline walked in with a lost look on her face.
“I’m sorry how this whole thing turned out.” He said.
“It’s okay.” She said with a smile. The room got quiet for a while and then she broke the silence with, “so, what are we going to do for the next twenty-four hours?”
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