How are people in Detroit dealing with the quarantine?
“What do you mean, three weeks?!” The flummoxed, annoyed voice filled the back of the rideshare car as the passenger, a heavyset man in his forties with a pale complexion and stringy dark hair, gripped the phone tighter. “You don’t understand, my kid’s turning twelve this year. That’s in two weeks, not three. Why the hell does it take so long to get a simple delivery? I’m talking about a toy for a kid here, come on.” He paused, listening before giving a heavy sigh. “Yes, yes, quarantine. But we can still get shipments, right? Inspections? So you’re telling me because they have to inspect every little thing, and food and medicine have priority, stuff like toys get shoved to the back of the line? Let me guess, three weeks is your optimistic estimate. Because you--yeah that’s what I thought.”
Lowering his head, the man muttered, “Hey, you know what’s not easy? Telling a twelve-year-old her present isn’t going to be here in time because of quarantine inspection rules. She’s my kid, man, I thought two weeks would be enough time. And I had to save up for this shit. She’s been into these racing games since she could hold a controller. She asked for the new Velocity Vortex game and I got her the game, a brand new system, and the steering wheel and pedal controller duo. I was gonna be the best dad in the world, now you’re saying I have to tell her to wait? Can’t you bump it forward a bit? How hard can it be to inspect a video game system? It’s not like it’s anything edible or--right, yeah, thanks anyway.” The fact that he wanted to say ‘for nothing’ was written across his face, but he held back. Instead, he simply sighed again. “No, don’t forward me to a supervisor, it wouldn’t do any good. Yeah, you too.” He disconnected then, making a face before realizing the car had stopped. “Oh, sorry.”
“No worries, man,” the guy in the front seat replied while shifting around to look at him with a visible wince. “Sounds like you’re not having the best day.”
Snorting, the pale man retorted, “Yeah, tell me about it. Now I get to go home and tell my wife that we need to come up with some sort of placeholder thing. No way can we just not give our kid a present on her birthday.” He was already typing on his phone, sending over the tip and accepting payment for the ride as he opened his door to get out. “Anyway, thanks for the lift.”
“Hey, hang on a sec.” The driver fumbled with something in his glove box, then passed back a card with a number written on it. “I’ve got a buddy, Adrian Perez. He used to do this gig too, but he ahh, he moved up in the world. Races cars for Ten Towers now. Anyway, you said your kid’s into that sort of thing, right? I know Adrian, he’s got little siblings he’s been taking care of. You call him, I know he’ll be totally up for taking your kid for a ride around the track a few times. That’s gotta be worth waiting a week for the game, right?”
Looking surprised by the offer as he took the card, the man stared at his driver for a moment. “Are you serious? This is for real?” He was clearly worried about something this good for his daughter being dangled and then yanked away.
The driver smiled. “Yeah, totally for real. That number should get you right to his cell. Just tell him Billy Donahan said you should get in touch and explain what’s going on. I’ll send him a text too, as a heads up. But either way, he'll definitely be up for it. You can talk about the whole thing and probably go see him at the track whenever he's free to hash out the details.” The guy shrugged then. “I mean, it's not like they've got a lot of competitions coming up. They're just as stuck in the city as we are. Hell, if I know Adrian, he'll talk the other racers into having some sort of exhibition match for her.”
“Oh my God.” The man held the card tightly and replied, “If I was the type, I'd absolutely hug you right now. Thanks. Just--thanks.”
“No problem,” came the easy response. “I mean, hell, with everything going on right now, those of us who are still sane need to stick together, right?”
The two men exchanged a few more words before the rider stepped out and the driver pulled away to get back to work. He drove several blocks, glancing toward the energy gauge on his console. Billy felt a little bad for the drivers he knew who were still relying on gasoline. The stations were getting shipments through, but prices were almost a dollar higher than they had been before the quarantine. Gas-powered cars had already been on their way out thanks to all the improvements in electrical power and a few other Touched-Tech advancements, and right now were probably only about half or less of the cars on the road. But half was still a lot to rely on increasingly rare and expensive shipments of gasoline.
It was getting pretty late, but he wasn’t ready to turn in just yet. Pulling over at the nearest energy station, he plugged in, flashed his card against the chip reader, and then sat on his hood scrolling through his phone while waiting about five minutes for it to finish charging. While zoning out like that, Billy didn't pay attention to the people coming and going from the nearby shop until raised voices drew his gaze that way. The manager was standing outside loudly arguing with a delivery driver.
“You have to be kidding me! Two cases?! What am I supposed to do with two cases? That'll be sold out before the sun comes up tomorrow! We’ve been waiting a week and a half for the shipment and all you've got is two cases?”
Visibly grimacing, the delivery man shook his head and took his hat off to fan himself. “Look, dude, I don't make the rules. You know everything's delayed and slowed down with this quarantine shit, and there's a bunch of other shops buying this stuff too. All I know is my boss sends out the list of who gets what. Your thing says two cases, right here.” He held his phone up for the manager to read the screen. “That’s your address, the shop name, your customer ID. Right next to it, ‘two cases.’ You got a problem with that, you'll have to take it up with him.”
The manager called and promised he would, then turned around to stalk back into the shop, letting the door slam shut behind him. When the delivery driver looked around, Billy gave him a sympathetic salute, then looked down at his phone as another fare opportunity popped up. Checking to see that his car was charged, he accepted the offer and disconnected the cord before hopping back in to head out.
This new fare was about a half mile away, so he used the time to dictate a text to send to Adrian, letting his old friend know what was going on with the birthday dad. Then he pulled up in front of what turned out to be a doctor's office. Normally, he’d think that was odd since it was already long past most business hours. But with the quarantine going on, many offices were working extended or odd times in order to accommodate everyone. Especially doctors, with the health concerns around this whole bioweapon thing.
An elderly woman approached, so he hopped out and helped her get into the back seat. As he took the wheel once more, she asked if he would mind stopping by the late-night pharmacy on the way back to her house. Billy assured her he didn't mind at all and headed that way. While they were driving, he struck up a conversation and found that her name was Betty. She lamented about how late it already was, the fact that she’d had to get an appointment at almost ten o’clock at night, holding up the prescription script she had been given while explaining that her doctor had told her the medicine she'd been taking for twenty years was out at the moment, so he had to put her on something else for the time being. She was worried about what sort of side effects it would have, and whether she'd have the energy she needed to take care of the teenage granddaughter who was staying with her since both of her parents had been caught outside the quarantine line on vacation.
Once they got to the store, Billy helped her out and made sure she made it inside, then waited around by the doors. He watched as a group of teenagers skating around in circles on the far side of the lot did a few tricks, clearly showing off for some girls who were watching. After a minute of that, a man approached from a school bus parked nearby and called out for everyone to get back on board so they could head for the motel. Which was met with a chorus of groans and complaints. Billy took another look at the bus and saw the name of a school district from somewhere in northern Michigan. These people didn't even live here in Detroit. At least not normally. They had clearly been visiting on a school trip and got stuck here when the quarantine started. How many students were there? How many chaperones did they have who were trying to keep all these visiting students under control through all this shit? Grimacing at the thought, Billy shook his head. He definitely didn't envy those people, that was for sure.
Before long, the woman came back, and he helped her into the car before driving her home. They talked a little more about Betty’s new medicine, and he gave her his number, telling the woman to call him if she needed another ride to the doctor or the pharmacy, so she wouldn't have to wait for some other driver. She thanked and tipped him extensively, then Billy helped her into the house. It was a small, one-story place with only two bedrooms. The one in the back had apparently been her son’s while he was growing up before being turned into a sewing room. Now it had gone back to being a bedroom again, this time for her granddaughter. He heard all about it when she insisted he come in and sit down for some lemonade. Not that he was going to object. She tipped very well, and it was pretty good lemonade to boot. Besides, it was late enough by now that he was probably about done for the night anyway. It was time to go home and relax.
He sat for a few minutes while he let the woman vent all about her fears. She was getting older, it was harder to get around, and she just didn't know if she could keep up with an excitable teenager like this. Especially not if the quarantine was going to go on much longer. The girl, whose name was apparently Yasmine, was fourteen years old and chafed against being stuck with her grandmother. She wanted to stay back at her old home, but that was in an apartment building on the fourth floor, and there was absolutely no way Betty could make it up that many stairs every day.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
They were still talking about that as the front door banged open loudly enough to make both of them jump, and the girl in question came running in. She was a tall, thin girl with short dark hair and a set of thick glasses. As she came charging into the kitchen while calling for her grandmother, the girl suddenly skidded to a stop when she saw the stranger sitting there.
Quickly, Betty introduced them before gently chiding her granddaughter for slamming the door and running through the house with her shoes on. Not to mention being out that late. She had thought the girl was in her room.
Yasmine, however, quickly spoke over that as soon as she was assured that Billy wasn’t some sort of home invader. “Never mind that, Grams, have you seen the news?! Wait, why isn’t the TV on? What’ve you been doing?!”
“Talking with my new friend here,” Betty informed her with a wry voice. “You know, speaking face to face? You should try that sometime, it’s such a--”
“I said never mind that!” Yasmine interrupted, before catching herself. “I mean--sorry, Grams. But come on!” She turned, fumbling with the remote sitting on the nearby counter before flipping on the kitchen television. “Look!”
Billy and Betty both turned their attention to the television, which was showing what at first just looked like a bright glowing white rectangle in the middle of the city. Only belatedly did the man recognize it as a building surrounded by some sort of energy shield. Beside him, Betty blurted, “What? That's your family’s apartment!”
Yasmine’s head bobbed quickly. “Seriously, you guys didn’t hear anything about this? The Scions are in there!”
That made Betty give a double-take, a sound of disbelief and horror escaping her. Then she rose from her chair and pulled her granddaughter into a firm hug. “You weren’t there, were you?”
“No, Grams,” the girl assured her. “I was with Sarah and Walter. We were just hanging out. But some people started posting about that. What if--what if we…” She visibly swallowed. “What if I… I’d convinced you to stay there instead of here? We would’ve been…”
Betty embraced the girl, shaking her head. “Hush now, none of that. We weren’t there. And neither are your parents. You’re safe.”
Sensing that he needed to give them some time alone, Billy rose and downed the last of his lemonade. He thanked Betty once more and reminded her to call him if she needed any more rides before heading out. On his way, the man glanced at the television. Shit, as if everything else that was already happening wasn’t enough, now the Scions had taken over a whole apartment building? What the hell were they doing? He had no idea. But he did know one thing.
Shit in this city was about to get even worse.
***************
Cassidy and Paige talking about their memories with Anthony while on the way back from Utah
Sipping at a cherry slushie while sitting with her legs folded under herself in the passenger seat, Cassidy took a deep breath before looking over at Paige as the other girl focused on the freeway ahead of them. Both had been quiet for some time, lost in their own thoughts while Qwerty napped in a nest of towels in the back of the van. Now, the smaller girl hesitantly spoke up in a quiet voice to avoid disturbing their new friend. “Do you remember--wait, of course you do. Sorry, I was just thinking about the time we… we went to the movies with Anthony.”
Paige, for her part, held the wheel just a little tighter as a very small smile found its way to her face. It was a smile both of fondness for remembering good moments, and of pain for what those moments had eventually led to. “We had to sneak off the grounds. You guys had been telling me all about how much fun actual movies in a real public theater were. We tried watching some of them in his family’s theater room, but it wasn’t the same. Then we got our chance, when… when Pittman and Anthony’s father were gone. They had to take the helicopter to the hospital to check on something for a few hours, so we snuck out and took one of those rideshares to the mall. I was…”
“Overwhelmed,” Cassidy finished for her, casting a tiny grin that way. “Totally overwhelmed. You wanted to run into every single store and look around. You wanted to taste all the food. Remember the candy shop?”
Paige blushed visibly, shifting in her seat as she confirmed, “Oh, I remember. How could I forget? They made chocolate treats right there in the store. It was my first time smelling something like that. I just--it was a lot.”
“We bought a lot,” Cassidy amended with a light snicker. “We bought a whole bag of candy to take into the theater with us so you could taste all of it.”
“Yeah,” Paige replied casually, “and then you bribed the usher twenty bucks to let us take it in there with us.”
Cassidy shrugged. “We still bought some stuff at the concession stand anyway. You needed the full experience. And the full experience included a huge tub of popcorn and one of these for each of us.” She held up the slushie pointedly. “I got pineapple, you got blue raspberry, and Anthony got… cherry.” The girl glanced down at her own red frozen treat briefly, biting her lip. “I don’t think I chose cherry that much before… because… because Anthony got it. It was Anthony’s and I always wanted to get something different from him because we shared anyway. He got cherry and I got whatever wasn’t cherry. But ever since…” She swallowed the hard lump that had formed in her throat, voice shaking a bit. “Ever since that happened, I’ve liked to get cherry whenever they have it. I just never knew why.”
While thinking about that, Cassidy held the cup out to the other girl. “We shared everything during the movie though.”
Leaning over to take a sip through the straw, Paige smiled a bit more. “Yeah, we kept passing everything back and forth. You guys said I had to taste it all. And Anthony was pouring M&M’s in with the popcorn. He said that was the best way to eat it.”
Snickering as another memory came to mind, Cassidy pointed out, “And you thought all the previews were separate movies and asked if we had to pay for each of them.”
“Can you blame me?” Paige shot back. “They give you so much detail in movie trailers it might as well just be a condensed version of the full movie. And when you put them all together the trailers last like twenty minutes.”
“That’s what Anthony used to say,” Cassidy pointed out. “Wait, he… he said that in the theater when you thought it was time to go after the first few trailers.”
Paige gave a slow nod, blinking a few times while staring at the road ahead of them. “He was right about that. He was right about a lot of things.”
“Like what movie we should watch,” Cassidy put in with a fond smile. “I thought we should see this big scary movie since we were all by ourselves, but he said we should go to a comedy. An animated comedy. I thought he was being silly because he didn’t want to see the scary movie, but he said that would be the best one for you to see for your first big movie in a theater. He… he was right about that too.”
“You would've had to bribe the usher a second time to let us into the scary movie anyway,” Paige pointed out with a snicker.
“Three times,” Cassidy corrected. “He was one of Simon’s friends, so I would've had to bribe him to let us in, and then again to not tell Simon. But I would’ve, if Anthony hadn’t convinced me that you should see that Pixar movie instead.”
Paige sat back a bit in her seat, staring at the cars they were passing for a few seconds before quietly announcing, “That's my favorite movie, you know? Just because it was the first one I saw in the theater. No, because it was the only one I saw in the theater with both of you. We didn’t get many chances to sneak off the grounds like that.”
“They’ve got a sequel coming out soon,” Cassidy noted thoughtfully. “We should go see it together. You and me.” She blushed immediately after saying that, backtracking with a quick, “I mean, if you want to--we don’t have t--if the memories are--”
Paige interrupted. “The memories are going to hurt. But I think it’s worth it. Memories are worth it, even if they’re painful. Because they’re not all painful. Even the ones that hurt are… better than not having them.”
Wincing at the thought of the alternative that she had already lived through, Cassidy gave a slow nod. “We'll go for Anthony. We'll get everything we had that first time and we’ll sit in the same seats. Maybe I can even bribe the usher again, just for old time’s sake.”
Grinning across the seat at the other girl, Paige put in, “Do you think Simon’s friend would be suspicious if you asked him to do his job again for a few minutes? You know, just to be as authentic as possible?”
Both girls giggle despite themselves at the thought, before Cassidy took another sip of her drink and mused, “I remember we made ourselves sick by the time we got out of the movie. Anthony and me had to throw up, and you stood guard inside the restroom because…” She shifted, eyes widening a bit at the realization. “Because I went into the boy’s restroom with him. I didn't even think about it. I just went in with him like that was where I belong. Because I felt like I did belong there right then. Not always. Sometimes I went into the other restroom and--sometimes I---”
“You said having signs and divided rooms was stupid because you should just go to whatever one had an empty toilet to use,” Paige reminded her. “You… you said ‘I don’t want--”
“‘I don’t want to stop and think about how I’m feeling right then before going to the toilet,’” Cassidy finished for her. “I thought putting labels on everything and dividing them by gender was stupid.” She was quiet again, looking away while a myriad of thoughts played across her face before adding, “You know what, I still do. Sometimes I feel more masculine and sometimes I feel more feminine. And neither of those should dictate what door I have to walk through so I can pee. Hell, sometimes I don’t feel like either. What am I supposed to do then, pee outside?”
Snorting at that, Paige replied, “It can be pretty complicated sometimes. Or all the time. But… but I’m just glad you remember that and… and him.”
Swallowing hard, Cassidy wordlessly passed the slushie over and then sat there in silence for almost a full mile of freeway before finally speaking again. “Yeah, me too. I never really had a chance to figure out exactly who… and what I was back then, not really. But I will now. I’ll figure it out. And I do know one thing I am. No, two. I’m Anthony’s friend. It doesn’t matter how long he’s been gone, I’ll always be his friend.
“And yours.”