Tony Scott - Along Came COVID - Love and Loss in the 2020 Pandemic

She pulled one side of her mouth up, “I have. I’m a lot less scared of this now. And Josh, you know that’s really because of you. I can’t imagine being in this situation with Brian.”

Josh poked her thigh with his heel. “You have to get Brian out of here. He is gone. Let it go. He doesn’t live here.”

“Are you really that angry about it?” She gave him a little pout.

“No. But sometimes it ruins the moment, like just now. This is our baby. Brian has nothing to do with it. It’s not his, it’s not his business, he doesn’t live here. This is just for us.”

“I agree.” She kept looking at his face, and he held her gaze. “I don’t mean to be a pain about it.”

“I know.”

“I’ll work on it, I promise. It’s just really hard. You know we see him almost every day.”

“That does make it tougher,” he said. “But I want him out of this house and Cori in.”

She didn’t answer. The change-of-subject face stared at her phone. “Hello, Dr Faith,” Natalie’s cheery voice heralded.

“What’s new, Nat?” Faith asked, procrastinating.

“Not much. I like earth science in school.”

“You’re becoming a nerd like me.”

“No. Not happening.”

“I have some news.”

“What news?” Natalie asked.

Faith hesitated. “I’m pregnant.”

“How good,” Natalie cheered. “Or is it?”

“Yes. I am worried that I will be a second-year resident and have a baby, but nobody thinks there’s a better time.”

“When are you due?”

“September 22.”

“Whose baby is it?” trepidation leaking into Nat’s voice. “Brian? Or Josh?”

“Josh, of course.”

“Oh good,” Natalie said. “Boy, that would be a nightmare.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. No, she’s Josh’s.”

“She?”

“We think so. I am only eleven weeks, so we are not sure, but we didn’t see a penis.”

“That’s so exciting,” Natalie was squeaking. “I’m excited. I’m going to be an aunt.” There was a pause. “Are you ready to tell Mom and Dad?”

“I think so.”

There was some shuffling, then Jim’s voice, low and smooth, said, “What did you tell Natalie?”

“I’m pregnant, Dad,” she said. “We’re going to have a baby in September. We think it’s a girl and we might name her Cori.”

Marianna’s laugh took over the conversation. “That’s so exciting.”

“You realize, that makes you Grandma.”

“I’m ready,” Marianna answered. “I thought about it after you married Brian, but then I thought about it the day we came to help move you in with Josh.”

“It’s Josh’s baby,” Natalie said.

“That’s good,” Marianna said. “What do you think of this, Josh?”

“I’m excited. Faith picked out the name Cori, and I love it.”

“That’s one of the names we talked about when we had Natalie,” Jim said.

“I don’t remember that,” Faith said. “I was only eleven when she was born. Maybe that’s where I got the idea, but I don’t remember talking about that name.”

“It’s a nice name,” Marianna said, “but what if it’s a boy?”

“Hezekiah,” Josh said. “Hezekiah Menkowicz.”

There was a period of silence, but Natalie couldn’t hold a laugh any longer. “How about Ralph?”

Jim’s chuckle came across.

“We didn’t talk about a boy’s name,” Josh admitted. “If this kid grows some balls, we will figure out something.”

“Giovanni,” Jim said.

“After you?” Josh said.

“I didn’t know if you knew my name.”

“Faith filled me in. What I haven’t reconciled is where Giovanni and Marianna decided to name their children Faith and Natalie.”

“Both of us were born in America,” Jim said. “We wanted American names. I have always used Jim because it’s easier for Americans to remember, and it’s what Giovanni means.”

“I can’t wait to buy her some clothes,” Marianna said. “This will be so much fun.”

Josh imagined Jim’s eyes rolling. “Don’t buy any dresses yet,” Josh said. “We aren’t sure enough.”

“That won’t stop her,” Jim said. “It won’t stop Natalie either. I am staying home when they go out shopping.”

“Good choice, Jim,” Josh said.

“We just wanted you to know,” Faith said. “We aren’t telling our work colleagues yet, but you don’t talk to them anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Besides Ricky, I don’t think we even know any of them,” Jim said. “I think the secret is safe. You guys need to come see us.”

“We’ll try to, Daddy, but we are not off together very often. And it’s a long drive for a day visit.”

“We know, honey,” Marianna said. “But if you can, do come.”

The call wound down and ended.

The quiet in the room and Faith’s face said it all to him. He thought about a diamond.

“This place has completely changed since Friday evening,” Ricky said, getting morning rounds started. The group, rejuvenated by a Saturday off, was blindsided by a complete change of patients in thirty-six hours. “We now have two patients being ventilated in the medical ICU, a patient who will deliver soon, and another who delivered a few hours ago but had huge blood loss.”

Ann took over, “One of the patients in the medical ICU is a thirty-one-year-old at twenty weeks who developed fever, cough and difficulty breathing over the last twenty-four hours. So far, she hasn’t responded to any of our medicines. Her influenza A and B were negative, her strep screen is negative, and we’ll know about coronavirus tomorrow.”

Peggy asked, “Haley, what’s our coronavirus update?”

“Well, we didn’t have any cases in New Mexico until ten days ago, but now we’ve had more than a hundred positive tests. The Albuquerque schools are closed, the University has gone to cyber-classes, all the sports events, concerts, and tours are canceled, the mall is closed, and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has closed indoor dining at restaurants. Most of the senior living facilities have stopped allowing visitors. People have exhausted the stores of bottled water and toilet paper. We’ve self-isolated any first responders and emergency room workers who are waiting for test results. We’re now down to twenty-four hours for test results, and our University lab has started analyzing them.”

It became an open forum. “But this will be more deadly,” Faith said. “I read there are more deaths per case of COVID than influenza.”

Ann said, “COVID transmits more easily. It looks like it’s all through respiratory droplets, like with influenza, but nobody is sure about surfaces and body fluids.”

“In our modern medical environment,” Josh said, “we can isolate better. This should not explode into the influenza outbreak of 1918 to 1920.”

“I don’t know about that,” Haley said, “this is getting scary. It’s us who will have to deal with all the pregnant ones.”

Peggy said, “Let’s be careful, isolate suspected patients, wash our hands, don’t touch our eyes, nose and mouth, cover our face when we cough, yada yada.”

“This might become a big deal,” Ricky said. “There are a lot of deaths, more than you would expect from influenza assuming we know the number of infections—”

“Which we don’t.” Haley said.

“— and there are long ICU stays. There is concern about whether the health system can manage this.”

“Which it can’t.”

“Shut up Haley.”

“Well,” she said, “the east coast is already becoming overrun with ventilator cases and they are scrambling to build temporary hospitals and mobilize the navy’s hospital ships. That means we may be in the same situation in a month.”