Diary of a Confused Teenager

Friday, the 13th of March 2020

Friday the 13th? Maybe bad luck.

I was watching the TV with my dad in the morning and the news were, of course, talking about the virus. The infected people count was at 68. I was standing there with my dad, who was waiting for the beautiful number of 69 to appear just to take a photo of it. I’m not going to lie, I was waiting too, but I personally couldn’t believe the number would change so fast. How things happened was a little strange and different from what we expected. The woman was talking about the last 3 cases which were confirmed in the morning, presenting the circumstances, when she suddenly interrupted herself, the image changed, and she announced the breaking news: there were now 70 cases. We missed 69, but we were kind of shocked. The number of infected people was now not rising gradually anymore, but exponentially. I could do a case counter from now on, but to properly show how things evolve I think it would have to be on hours, and this is really hard to do. I will stick to naming the number of cases in the morning and the number of cases in the evening.

We went to have lunch at a restaurant in the center of the city today, because we were celebrating my grandma’s birthday. Of course, the main topic of conversation was coronavirus, until my grandpa got drunk, as he always does, and started to change subjects every 3 minutes and to talk nonsense.

Then we decided to leave, but my parents insisted that before we go home, we should take a little walk around the historical center. I have to say that never in my life have I seen so little people in the center of Deva. Not even when it is raining.

Then we got to the car and my parents took me to the post office, because I had to get a package. Ignoring the fact that I stood there an infuriating amount of time, because this happens almost every time I try to deliver or receive a package via post, behind me there entered another 3 people, of whom 2 were wearing masks. Fools! I am once again convinced that we will die of foolishness, not of the virus. They did not seem to have any symptoms or respiratory problems, but they were still wearing masks. I really regret that I did not ask them if they were sick, just out of curiosity, but I was too angry at the staff who seemed to really not know their job to do that.

I didn’t go home by car, because I went to see a classmate to give her an English book she forgot in my backpack before school ended. We ended up talking a lot, starting with how we were feeling and getting to the fact that we kind of miss school. We both enjoyed our free time and were feeling less stressed, but school kind of gave us a programme to stick to. Now everything was so loose that we would end up postponing things until the evening, even though we didn’t have anything else to do. We also agreed on the fact that this will make us bond more as a group of friends, because our desire to meet, but also as a community because we will have to stop being suspicious and help each other. She said that she really wanted us all to meet some time, at least the ones who are allowed to go outside. Her parents aren’t that strict, but she said they really try to talk her out of going out. Her mother, who works at the city hall, told her that the mayor is in quarantine because he shook hands with some people during previous meetings and he is now tested.

Then I went to a good friend of mine since middle school, Teo. She is now in another high school, that is presumably worse than mine, although she is smarter than me, but that is where she chose to go. She received 10 times more homework than me at this point. I am really sorry for her. We baked some muffins, which turned out really good, and discussed the virus, but now in a different manner. She has an open relationship, which from the outside seems really beautiful, but I won’t get into details of why it isn’t a fairy tale. Her boyfriend is from Petrosani, a city in the same district. She was planning to visit him today, but her mother didn’t let her go under any circumstances. Why? Because a 26 year old woman, who came back from Italy, didn’t respect the quarantine period and went to the hospital without telling anyone she is suspected with coronavirus. She lied about this for three days, until the analyzes came back: she was positive. She had directly infected other 6 people, including patients and doctors. Now we are on the second place as the district with the most confirmed cases. The first is the capital, Bucharest.

When I went home it was already 9 pm, which is pretty early, but there were so little people on the street it seemed as the middle of the night.

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