Dear Corona, Sincerely Us

Chapter 2

"Be safe, honey."

"Of course, I will." I smiled at my wife and my 5-year-old daughter who were waving at me before I walked out the door.

Sigh. Just another day of being outside. I fixed my uniform before making my way to the station. 

The street was calm as I drove by. Close to no people were in sight. This should be a fair day judging from the situation around.

"Good morning, Officer." I smiled at all of my workmates who somehow could still maintain wide smiles on their faces, while I, I had to force it out to assure them that we were doing the right thing and the best we could to help.

In the academy years ago, we learned all about firearms and criminal investigations, but a pandemic? My, that is way out of my league. I was sure that everyone was scared. I was scared. I was tired too. I was tired of not being able to hug my daughter as I got home from work. I was tired of not being able to kiss my wife. I was tired of living in fear. However, I knew that the people needed us. There was not much we could do but that was the least we could do. To keep people away from each other and provide emotional strength.

"Jared?" Captain Keith came to my seat with his usual serious countenance as I was finishing up on some paper works and I just knew what he was about to say. "Well, today is apparently a good day to have a barbecue party in the city for some teenagers." I shook my head and quickly saved my documents before standing up, grabbing my stuff in the process.

"I think I'll take this one myself, Sir," I told him and he just nodded his head. 

I had lost of words. I used to get assigned to cases with people getting robbed, apparent drug dealing,  murders, but then this time, the worst case we seemed to have was people trying to socialize. How do you tell someone that socializing is not the right thing to do? How do you convince yourself that socializing is a crime?

"You want me coming with you, Jared?" Tommy, my colleague, my partner-in-crime, my friend, asked me and I chuckled, shaking my head.

"Nah, it's fine. Just finish my paper works for me, will you?" I wiggled my eyebrows jokingly and he laughed as a response. 

I bid my friend adieu and now, off we go.

The city has applied a rule of not allowing more than ten people in a room, let alone an event. And the world knows to stay 1.5 meters away from each other. Not the most fun, I know, but it is for the best.

I made my way to the city park and sure enough, there I saw a group of teenagers having what seemed to be a birthday party. I felt a pang on my chest almost immediately. My daughter's birthday was coming soon and I knew how they felt. It surely does not seem like a fun thing to do, celebrating your birthday in your house with no one to spend the day with. That was what made my job so much harder around the time of the pandemic. 

"Hey, excuse me." I approached the group of adolescents and the scared look on their faces only strengthen the smile on my face to calm them down. "I'm really sorry but you gotta need to cut this party short."

One kid then came towards me and said, "Officer, I'm really sorry. I had been in the house for far too long and I just really wanted to spend my birthday with my friends. I had not met them for so long too."

I sighed and replied, "I understand, kid, but with the situation happening right now, I'm afraid that it should be the way it is. At least for now." He looked back at the picnic table with his cake on it and at all his friends around.

He, then, looked back at me and said, "But can I at least blow the candle first?"

It was my turn then to look at everyone in the park and quickly smiled at him. "Kids, spread out." I told his friends, telling them all to step away from each other and from the table, leaving a good distance for him to blow the candles away from everyone.

His friends all clapped and cheered at him soon after. The grin on his face made me feel warm inside. I quickly helped them clean up and told all of them to go home and keep their distance from others. 

"Thank you, officer." The birthday boy said as we were done packing things up.

I smiled at him and said, "Happy birthday, kid."

Well, that went well. Let's hope I would not have to separate people away from happiness again anytime soon.

I took a seat on a bench facing the main road with no car but within my peripheral sight. It had been one stressful afternoon. I just needed to take a little rest before hitting the play button back on my day. However, my thought was kindly interrupted quickly as I saw a drone flying out of the car parked in front of the grocery store. It was going towards the middle-aged woman who was sitting in front of the entrance to the store with her kid sitting next to her. It was just sad to know some people do not even have a decent place to protect themselves from the virus.

The woman took the piece of paper that was hanging on the drone and smiled widely as she opened it. The drone then flew back into the car and I could see two young girls, with one being probably around ten years old. I could not help but smile seeing what happened. Whatever was on the paper, they had done a great job making someone smile amid this terrifying situation.

As I was watching them, the drone came back out and it was going towards my direction. I was watching around me to see if there were any other people, and apparently no, I was the only person around where the drone was heading. It soon stopped to hover a few centimeters away from my face with a note hanging underneath it. On the paper, there was handwriting that says,

"Please take me!" 

I took the note and it turned out to be an envelope where inside, I found a ten dollars bill and another piece of paper. I took it out and read what was written in it.

"Hey! I know this situation can be scary, but it will get better one day if you just stay far from people and stay clean! Don't forget to tell the others around that they're loved!"

I looked back at the two girls who were high-fiving each other at the moment and smiled really wide. They looked back at me for a second and I mouthed a quick "Thank you" before they drove away.

Apparently, today had been way better than expected. I learned that there are still ways out there to spread love and people who are still willing to spread the love. I knew then that distance would not stop people from being kind to one another. 

I wish nothing but happiness and health for those girls who had created smiles on others and I wish, for the sake of humanity, that this will all pass.

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