A World Changer

“Welcome back to Worldly News! I’m Anne reporting from Melbourne, Australia. We have drastic news that perhaps may change our lives… forever.”

Hmph 

“As we carry on with this problematic pandemic, we have to prepare for more life terrorizing problems, as of now. I got news back from my fellow friend Nate that works at the local hospital, reporting that we have another variant case of Covid-19. But this variant is different than the others that have been found. This one can get into anyone’s body, even if they were not close to any positive cases of Coronavirus. It can get into anyone’s body because of global warming. The only way that we can create a “vaccine” is to limit the amount of gasses that they are using and seek any tips to reduce global warming. I have been told that everyone worldwide has to go through a lockdo-” 

Click

Sigh 

Elaria gets up from her bed and places the remote underneath the TV. She stretches and murmurs a bunch of words to herself. It’s 8:59 in the morning, and she is not happy with these news. “Lockdown again! Why? WHY?!” She tugs on a pair of jeans and an autumn colored sweater. She murmurs even more; negative things and the new lockdown. Why is the world like this? Questions ponder in Elaria’s head, making her grunt in anger. She hops down the stairs and prances into the kitchen. She hasn’t gone out for 11 whole months. She always ordered all her necessities online and got them delivered to her house. Elaria owns her own house and lives by herself. She’s 21 years old, making her an adult. She’s unmarried, but is engaged. I think you can tell that she has some temper issues. Elaria bursts the cupboard open to find a pan to fry her eggs. She flies to the fridge to get 2 eggs, almost dropping them as she holds both of them in one hand. Elaria drizzles oil into her pan and cracks in one egg, frying it until it’s ready. She cracks in the last egg sloppily, making the yolk break open. She lets out a heavy sigh and quickly decides to make scrambled eggs. When she’s done, she takes her plate of eggs and a spoon and places it on the table. Elaria takes out some orange juice and a slice of bread. She pours the juice into a tall glass, along with a few ice cubes. She toasts her single slice of bread in a toaster. Elaria is so lost in her thoughts that when the bread popped up, she was startled and jumped back. She grumps, unplugs the toaster, takes out her bread and walks over to her table where she left her scrambled eggs. As she sits down, she realizes that she forgot her orange juice. She glares at the tall glass as she walks towards it, willing to crack the miserable glass. But she can’t, because then she’ll have to clean up the mess. She swipes her glass and walks back to the table, getting ready to chow down on her breakfast.

It’s 2:30 in the afternoon, and Elaria is lying down on the couch, scrolling through the depths of social media. Everyone looks like they're having fun, even though this pandemic is still active. Her fiance, Luke sometimes comes over for a while to accompany her, but that’s just SOMETIMES. Otherwise he’s busy with his job or watching over his poor old mother. She’s 60 years old, meaning that she needs to take special care of herself. Luke’s father passed away due to cardiac arrest, somewhere around last month in January. Whenever Luke talks to her over the phone or comes to her doorstep with a mask on, he always says that he’s sorry that he can’t come over. Elaria always forgives him, because he really does need to spend time with his mother, the only person that he has. As Elaria ponders on about her thoughts, something strikes her thought, like a pebble hitting a still pond, creating ripples. In this case, the pebble is the invading thought, the hit is when the pebble strikes, and the ripples are the worries that she can think of just by that one thought. 

The thought that her brain randomly have her was that the wedding is planned to be in April, but with the new lockdown, she might not be able to get married. Then her thoughts start to subject into the problem. “What if… what if… WHAT IF!” She gets up from her position so that her anger could cool down. Who knew that the world would make her life halt? What will she do now? Questions enter into her head, making her anxious and worrisome. She starts to feel her nose run, but she ignores it. She starts to gasp for air, thinking that all of this is happening because of a panic attack. But she firmly grabs the leather of her couch as she gasps for air. She can’t think straight. What if questions run through her head as she falls off from the couch onto the ground. Elaria is holding her neck, gasping for all the air that she can get. The doorbell rings, but she doesn't have any power to attend the guest. She’s sprawled across the ground, her legs pushing her forwards on her back. Just as she hears a knock on the door, she passes out, leaving the guest wondering why the average human wouldn’t respond. 

Hey guys. It’s me, Luke. I’m pretty sure you know me. I’m just gonna tell you what happened. I was the one at the door, waiting for her to come so that I could see her lovely face and at least talk to her, but she wouldn’t respond. But Elaria has given me one of her house keys, so I used that and managed to enter myself. When I stepped in, I saw that she was sprawled on the ground, not moving. From a distance, I watched her to see if she was breathing, but I couldn’t see her chest rise. I rushed to her body and lifted up her wrist to check her pulse. I felt a very faint and weak one, so I checked her heartbeat. I pressed my ear against her chest, but I only heard a beat between 10-15 second intervals. The pulse was obviously irregular, and the condition of what shape she was in made me call the ambulance. 

In exactly 6 minutes, the ambulance arrived at her house, with a tall man running in, followed with 2 others carrying a cot in between them. The tall guy checks her pulse, and when he couldn’t find something that he was listening and feeling for, he had a concerned face plastered across his face. That made me worry. He told me to come with him to the hospital, and that I should lock all doors when exiting. Once he was done with his sentence, I sprung up to get myself ready, checking if all the doors were locked. They were locked, as usual, and I ran to the front door where I entered from. I held the door wide open as the 2 people who brought the cot in zoomed out the door, proceeding to the ambulance carefully and wisely. They load her up in the back as I lock the front door. When I turned around, I saw that everyone was ready to go. Dang they’re fast. I skip the stairs and make a huge jump to get to the bottom and run to the back of the ambulance. I board on, and the guys to my right closes the door behind me. I take a seat and arrive at the hospital in agony.

Hey guys. It’s me, Luke again. I’m at the hospital waiting for news about Elaria. I don’t know what has happened to her. I had to recap what happened because I was just too worried and I needed to talk to someone. But, while I’m waiting, I can talk about a few things that you may not know about me. I’m 23 years old, and live with my mother. My father passed away, so I’m just left with mother and Elaria. I don’t have any siblings. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I heard about the new variant of Covid today, so I’m aware that we should lower the risk of global warming. I’m planning to create signs and hold a voice in global warming. We need to do something, as it will be good in 2 ways. One, we could have a potential vaccine. 2, we could save lives by reducing the amount of heat that could harm us. I want to save the world. Make it a better place. 

It’s been 2 hours and I've fallen asleep. I woke up to the sound of squeaky shoes on the floor becoming louder and louder. I see a female doctor giving me a friendly smile with her eyes. But deep down, I could see something pooled in them. She arrives in front of me, keeping a fair distance to keep us safe. A clipboard is clenched to her chest. She wears a sky blue medical mask with Pinkberry glasses. Her hair is in a messy bun, which really compliments her eyes. She greets me with a polite “hello”.

“Hi,” I say to her, keeping my voice as calm as I can.

“My name is Arabelle, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, I’m Luke.”

“Perfect, perfect.”

She takes her clipboard and scribbles something on it. 

“I am here to tell you about Elaria.”

She looks straight at my eyes. My eyes must’ve said something, because Arabelle says, 

“ Don't worry. She will get in a stable condition soon. “

Soon

“ Elaria is diagnosed with the latest variant of Covid. I’m afraid that she may not survive. She relies on an oxygen tank, and her heartbeat is too slow. Our team is thinking that we will keep her in until she’s better. We are very sorry to tell you this news. This is our 3rd case in this hospital. “

I think my heartbeat may slow all the way down that in fact I won’t be alive. How could Elaria be in such a condition? She was perfectly fine the days before and hasn’t visited anyone else except for me. How can- oh. It can get into anyone even though they weren’t near a positive case.

“Is it possible that I can meet her?”

“Actually, yes, You may. Follow me.”

I follow right behind her, ignoring the policy to keep a safe distance away from others. I’m led to a dark room with monitors and wires everywhere. On the bed, there’s a bony Elaria, face pale as a swan. Arabelle slides open the glass door and leads me into the dark room. There are 2 other female nurses. Arabella makes a motion with her head, which makes the other nurses in the room leave silently. 

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I nod, and she leaves the door, sliding the door shut. Once I make sure that there is nobody near, I tiptoe to her bed. Her chest rises and falls when she breathes. The blood from her face looks like it has drained. Her fingers lay motionless on her stomach. I reach out for her hands, and take them into mine. Poor Elaria. Her hands are extremely cold. I immediately cup both of her hands into mine, willing to make her hands warm, just as they were before. I lay my head beside her bed with tears welling up in my eyes. I let go of her hands when I hear a little gasp. I look behind me first, but I don’t see anyone there. As I’m turned around, I feel something warm on my hands. I slowly turn my head around, hoping that what I’m feeling right now is true. 

“Elaria-?”

I look carefully at her face. It’s her hands that are on mine. She doesn’t show any movement on her face. In fact, she looks the same as before. The mask that she has on for her oxygen supply fogs up as she takes a deep breath and opens her eyes; slowly and tiredly. 

“Nghh”

“Elaria, is this really you?”

“Mmm...yessss.”

Everything that she says is slurred. I can’t hear her properly. It must be because she’s tired. 

“Elaria, relax. Try not to talk, okay?”

“Mmmm… what happened?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re feeling all better. Right now you need to rest.”

…

“Luke?”

“Yes?”

“When will we be together?”

“Don’t worry El. I have everything arranged. We will be able to get wedded off next month for sure. Everything is ready, we just need you to feel good.”

“Mmmff...okaaaaay.”

“Now, rest for a while. We’ll talk later, ok?”

She nods okay. She closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep. I carefully leave the room, making sure that she doesn't notice my absence. I meet the nurse Arabelle right outside the door working on a chart. 

“How’d it go?”

“It went well. Elaria woke up and was talking, but her speech was slurred.”

Her eyes widen.

“She’s recovering fast! Wow, she’s a healthy one!”

Hearing that made me feel calm. I check my watch. It’s 6:23 in the evening. 

“I gotta rush home now. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Okay then. It’s very nice to meet you.”

Arabelle’s eyes twinkle, and I wave my hand goodbye. I turn around to go back home. I have to prepare dinner with my mother and get ready for the next day, the important day.

Yawn

Good morning. It’s the next day finally. Today’s a special day because my friends and I are going out to hold a voice for global warming. We made signs together, and we have a speech ready. I have to get ready and go, I’ll talk to you when I’m back!

Hellooooo! I’m back from the speech. My friends and I conveyed the message and gained lots of people to help us. We won’t be travelling by car, and we will try everything to minimize global warming. It’s 2:30 right now. Wow, the speech and everything was 6 and a half hours long. Anyways, I’m really tired, but I want to meet Elaria. I have to get ready and go to the hospital. I’ll see you guys soon!

1 Month Later

It’s a month later, and Elaria is at the field with Luke. Elaria has been discharged and is feeling fresh, happy. She’s getting wedded to Luke tomorrow. 12 hours left. It’s 9 pm. It all starts at 12. Elaria and Luke talk in quiet voices, watching the water run and clash against the rocks. Their hair flies freely in the wind, making it look like a dramatic movie scene. They sit on the ground, waiting for the other to start up a conversation.

“Elaria?”

“Yeah?”

“We saved the world.”

Luke’s eyes twinkle in the starry night. He gives a soft smile and a tired yawn followed by that. The news about the variant was dramatic, but with determined people like Luke and Elaria, they can make the world a better place.