The Covees (are Good Enough)

The Apple Lips Door. That’s what Keren called the metal door at the basement wall. She can barely see the door’s frame because it was obscured behind wooden boxes holding stacks of classic Reader’s Digest and National Geographic magazines. She would sometimes read the magazines and then bully her little brother Sydney to return the stacks back. For fulfilling his “duty”, Keren rewarded him some of her allocated PlayStation time.

However, Keren has gone bored and restless from staying at home after the government declared that offices, factories, commercial establishments, churches and schools will be closed for more than a month because of the nationwide lockdown to prevent further infection and deaths from the COVID pandemic.

Barely two weeks into the lockdown, Keren is beyond restive. She is agitated and twitchy. A week ago, to make their down-time productive, her parents apportioned both of them video game time every day so that they would still have time for chores, reading and outdoor activities.

Not being much of a gamer, she eventually gave all her video game allotment to her brother whom she calls Stinky.

At dinner time, Keren expressed her boredom to her Dad Lou. It turns out that her father was feeling the same way. Though Lou is a fan of UFC and the WWF and watches mostly its re-runs, Lou misses his work as Senior Marketing Manager. He is so used to deadlines, the brewed coffee from Washington State, brainstorming and campaign presentations. This worldwide emergency that imposed this monotonous, dreary home quarantine is driving him batty.

Keren’s mother Stefanie reassures both, “This is just for a while. Like that crisis in 1918…”

“What happened in 1980, mom?” Sydney intersects.

“Not 1980, Stinks! 1918! World War One!”

Lou expounds, “None of us were born then.”

“Really now?” Stefanie harasses him.

“Just the facts, ma’am. At that time, your grandfather was with the Navy and your nana was a nurse. After the pandemic, they told horror and hopeful stories on what they had to go through. In Portland, the sick were brought to Keller Auditorium. About a week later, the beds were full. Before the month was over, the city's funeral homes were at their threshold.”

Keren further torments her brother, “The dead were so many, and the gravediggers did not have time to bury them. So the dead had to walk to the burial ground themselves. That’s why nobody is allowed to go outside because you might meet them, Stinks!”

Her brother is now skeptical about anything she spews until a knock on the door shakes him terrified.

“They’re coming to get you, Stinks!”

As Lou, checks the front door, Stefanie assures her children, “Everything will pass. In the meantime, we can use this reprieve as our family time. We can discover new things about ourselves, our family ---“

“Our house,” intrudes Sydney.

“Our house?” Stefanie asks,” Is there a part of our house that’s still a secret to you?”

“Stinky is obsessed with the Apple Lips door at the basement, Mom. He thinks it’s a portal to the Netherealms or Shadaloo whatever.”

“Children, that room belong to your Uncle Rody. He’s with the Army now serving in Syria”, Stefanie explains.

“It’s been years since he last called up and visited. I’m worried about my younger brother. His commander said he is still alive and well. But because of the nature of his job, we can’t just call him via Skype, send a text message or Facebook shout out.”

“What’s inside uncle’s rom?” Sydney animatedly intervenes. “Guns, grenades, tanks, laser shooters, spaceships, aliens?”

Keren fuels her brother’s unbridled imaginings, “Every time I select a magazine at the basement, I hear sounds from the door. It sounds like space pirates talking about protecting the secret treasures inside at all cost.

Her parents look at each other, smiling. Sydney has had enough of her sister’s disclosure and stands up to follow Lou to the living room.

Keren resumes, “But most of all, the space bandits argue on how to teach the meddling pudgy, stinky boy in the house a lesson in cleanliness!”

Sydney realizing her ruse, launches a punch at her sister which she effortlessly dodges in aikido style.

Stefanie tries to separate and pacify the two, just in time for Lou to return and finish his dinner. “Just the local health office checking up on how we’re doing. I said we’re handling the lockdown peaceably. Obviously, I spoke to soon.”

“How is the town doing, Lou?” his wife asks.

“The good news is that we’ve been lucky here in Astoria. The bad news is that Portland has several cases of infected and several have died. Dr. Donner believes the state has yet to go through the worst. The scenario is very similar to what happened here during the Spanish flu a hundred years ago.

“It’s a good thing school was suspended early, hon.”

“I hated going to school anyway,” whined Sydney. They’re always calling me the COVID boy. I tell them it’s Covey! My name is Sydney and I’m a Covey! They laugh and shout out that I am the virus king. At that point, I wish I was so I could infect them all.”

Silence and then, “So much anger in him,” Keren underscores. “What could have been driven such a smelly hobbit like him to be so vengeful?”

Lou mediates, “That’s enough, Ren. Anyway, since the cable signal is not working, we might as well pay the Apple Lips room a visit. We might need it soon if things get hazardous.”

“You mean, if the virus mutates and becomes airborne and victims become zombies?”

“What have you been watching on the web, Sydney?” Lou asks.

“He thinks it’s a Raccoon City scenario, Dad,” quips Ren. “You know, Resident Evil, Umbrella Corporation, T Virus, Milla Jovovich - Anderson?

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. But it’s best to be prepared.

The family reaches the steel access and everyone clears he magazine boxes. The door was not locked. But because of its bulk and weight, only an adult would have a chance of opening it. Lou opens the door and flips a light. Despite being uninhabited and old, the underground chamber is not moldy or dusty. An automated system purifies the air and monitors the humidity of the large room. At one side are compartments for canned food, cereals, water and other drinks. The other side has metal boxes containing medical equipment, meds, haz mat suits and gas masks.

“This bunker was designed to be ready anytime,” Lou comments. “Your brother made sure all of us were going to be safe from an emergency and an extended lockdown.”

“That’s why it’s called an Apocalypse Room, honey.”

“When are we going to get the red lip apples, Dad?”

“I’m sorry, Ren. There are no Apple Red Lips here. It’s just the Apocalypse. It’s like an end of the world situation.”

“I don’t want the world to end just yet, Dad! I haven’t gone to Jeju Island yet!”

“It won’t end, Keren. Not while your family is around. I promise you that.”

Sydney will not have any of these melodramatics and Korea tele-novella trivia. He is too busy wandering and examining his uncle’s paraphernalia and memorabilia. Of particular interest to him is a golden harpoon encased in a glass cabinet along with several plaques, medals an d a Distinguished Public Service Award. Aside from the Gold and Silver Life-Saving Medals, this is the highest public recognition that the Commandant of the Coast Guard may award. Distinguished Public Service Awards are given to recognize extraordinary heroism in advancing the Coast Guard's mission.

“Wow, Uncle was a real hero!” he exclaimed.

“He was a hero to our Mom and Dad, Sydney. He was the hero to me as well. He worked to send me to college and then assisted me in getting me my first job at the canning station. I’m thinking about him all the time and wish that we had more time together to have a good time, visit the rest of the country. He was very funny and always protected me in school. He was more than a brother to me. He was my friend.”

“I wish he was my brother too.”

Unknown to Sydney and everyone else, Keren was eavesdropping on her brother. She felt strangely hurt. A peculiar feeling that was made even more bewildering by a teardrop and a deep sigh. She quickly stifled it along with its implications.

Sydney continued inspecting some of the smaller boxes. He pulled out one of the 8 x 4 inch black rectangular item which was inside a cardboard box thinking it was a book. Her mother showed her that it was a VHS cassette. “It looks like a tape dispenser,” he said.

“Well, this tape dispenser plays movies. Let me see what movie this is – ooh, this one was way back in the 70’s. This was our last Christmas together as a family. Dad shot this in his Super 8 video camera and Rody transferred it to VHS a few years later. Let me see if we can still watch it. Lou! Can you set up the VHS?”

Lou easily set up the CRT television, the VHS and the speakers while Stefanie arranges the seats. Everyone animatedly watches Stefanie’s family – her Dad, Mom, and the very young Rody and Stefanie. A few minutes later, a guest drops in for Christmas dinner, an even younger scrawny, freckled boy named Lou. Everyone is laughing now, even Lou.

The video shifts from one part of the house to another. However, Keren is fixated on the siblings and how they show their kindness and fondness for each other. How she wished that her kid brother would consider her as his hero too.

“Do you need another napkin, Ren?”

She was surprised that her Dad had noticed and waved away his offer and instead used her bare palm to wipe her tears.

Her father then invited her to join him in the bunker’s den.

“Ren, do you know what our family name means?”

“I learned from the web that it’s Old French of cover or hide.

“That’s about it,” Lou affirmed. ”But, do you know what apocalypse means?”

“You said it means the end of the world.”

“Well, implied and sort of,” he rectified. “But that’s not the actual meaning of the word. Apocalypse is a Greek word meaning ‘revelation’, an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling.”

Lou continued, “Our family name means to cover and hide. Apocalypse means to uncover and reveal. This last couple of weeks, this worldwide scourge has laid low both rich and poor, powerful and slave. It has revealed where our priorities are and that the idols we desperately cling to – wealth, fame, career, reputation – are but flimsy replacements to faith, family and true friends. I hope that this period of revealing will help us to stop covering our lives or hiding under these pretenses.”

“You mean like hiding my true feelings for my brother?”

“Ren, I know you were scared the day we brought him from the hospital after he was born. All of the sudden, you were no longer the apple of our eyes. You were jealous, angry and anxious. Your mother and I knew what you were feeling. But, we also saw your potential to be your brother’s star. Not everyone is given the chance to be an eldest child, Ren. It’s a big honor but also an even bigger responsibility. Every sibling that comes after will always look up to you, imitate you, will try to measure up to you.”

“All I wanted was to be his friend but he’s so different and bizarre, Dad!”

“Don’t you mean distinct and interesting?”

“I love him Dad but he’s so stubborn and stupid.”

“Well, I also knew someone several years ago who was pig-headed, silly and unruly. So full of endless tantrums and mood swings.”

Keren’s face went sad. ”I don’t remember her being like that, Dad.”

“Things like crises, problems, emotion and anger have a way of revealing or uncovering our true selves, Keren.”

“Did she change, Dad?”

“With those kinds of people you just learn to accept them the way they are and just love them. After all, she is all those hateful attitudes but she is also smart –“

“Very smart!”

“And proud of it.” Lou continues, “She, the ginger with the sad eyes. Very thoughtful, sweet in a odd way.”

“Like Mom!”

“Yes! Sometimes I even think she’s our long lost daughter.”

So, it was in the midst of a virulent pandemic in the early 21st century that had the potential to annihilate the human race that Ren understood that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Even end of the world things.

“Lou, Captain David Albano called and informed me that Rody will be visiting us soon!”

“That’s good, Stephanie. Actually, I’ve been thinking about Rody for some time and now that this bunker has gone public, it revealed other details that I’m interested to find out.”

“Like what, Lou?”

“Well, Rody is Coast Guard. So, what is he doing in the arid desert of northern Syria?”

“You have doubts about my brother, Lou?”

“Rody is hiding something from all of us, Stefanie. Whatever it is, I think it’s because he is protecting us from knowing and endangering ourselves.”

Lou holds up a citation. “This is a Science Award given by the Center for Disease Control.”

“But Rody is no doctor or scientist,” she explains.

“I know!! But get this – the terrorists in that part of the Middle East have been known to have stolen and used bio weapons.”

“You’re saying that my brother is not just a sailor?”

“Think about it, Stef. This bunker is not just a fallout shelter. It’s germ warfare-proof underground vault. Whatever his real work is, he knew we would eventually need this quickly.”

“When Rody gets here, everything will be revealed about this mysterious cabin under the house.”

‘Yes. It will be hash tagged Ren and Sydney: Beyond The Apocalypse Door.”

“What do you think, Keren?”, Stefanie asks.

“Well, Mom, you know us girls just want to have fun.”