A hard head makes a soft.......

A hard head makes a soft....... 

By LaPanda Mason 

Symphony was riding on the elevator with her co-workers. It had been a long Friday, so she was looking forward to the weekend. They were sent home early because there was some talk about a virus going around that was very contagious. The mayor ordered everyone to go home and stay inside. 

“I’m sure this will all be over soon,” Symphony said to no one in particular. 

One of her co-workers replied, "I'm actually a little scared Symphony! Shit, I have never heard of the mayor shutting down a city.” 

“Girl, this is nothing! I think they're just exaggerating. Oh, and did you hear that if you catch the virus you turn into some kind of crazy person?” 

“I know and that’s exactly why I am going to take my ass home and stay there,” the other co-worker says. 

Just then the elevator doors open, and they step off. There are police officers escorting them out the doors towards the parking lot.  

“Why are you pushing? Damn, I’m going!” Symphony says clearly bothered. She walks along with a group of other co-workers that would also take the bus to work. She hadn’t driven a car since her accident five years ago. The first bus pulled up, but it filled up quickly, so she had to wait for the next one. She could hear people on the bus coughing and sneezing. She frowned her face up. 

“Glad I’m not on that one,” she said once it pulled away. She could swear she heard a scream just as the bus turned the corner. 

The next bus pulled up, with only a few passengers on board so the rest of the people that were waiting was able to get on. Symphony noticed a man sitting in the back of the bus slumped over. He was coughing and his shirt was wet with sweat. She took the seat closest to the front of the bus. She only lived a few blocks away so she would be home soon. 

“Can you believe what’s going on?” the bus driver asked. 

“It’s no big deal! It’s all AI created to scare us all,’ she replied. Symphony saw a lady running down the street naked. She looked at the bus drive just as he looked at her. “She’s just hot!” she mumbled.

“You know they said it’s spreading right?” he told her. "It’s not just here anymore, it’s hit five other states.” 

Symphony simply shook her head. She looked at her phone and scrolled through her social media timeline. It seemed everyone was making a big deal about this virus. They had videos showing people attacking other people for no apparent reason. She shook her head. She looked at everyone on the bus and they had on masks now. Where the hell did, they get masks from? 

“You want a mask?” the bus driver asked. 

She shook her head. “No thank you! I won’t be able to breathe in that thing.” She stood in front of the doors. “My stop is next any way.” The bus stop was only a block away from her house. She would normally walk down the alley way but today she wanted to take her time. It was a nice day; the birds were singing and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. She opened the front door to her house that she shared with her mother and father. 

“Hey Momma,” she greeted her mother. 

She was sitting on the couch watching a game show on T.V. “Hey Suga! You're home early!” 

“Yeah,” Symphony said taking her jacket off and hanging it in the coat closet. “Because of all the crap on the news. Hell, people get the flu all the time! And now crazy people are a little more crazy?” 

“They are acting like it’s going to spread throughout the country. Hell, the world!” her mother said, throwing her hands in the air. 

“I did see this lady running down the street naked,” Symphony told her mother. “That was kind of weird.” She sat on the couch next to her mother. She picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned the channel. “Don’t nobody want to watch that!” She said before her mother had a chance to protest. She stopped on the world news channel. The virus was spreading too quickly for the local authorities to handle so the governor ordered the reserves to come into the cities.  

“Oh my God! They are doing too much,” Symphony says. She walked over to the big picture window as the military filled the street. A army man rode on the outside of one the Humvees as it drove down the street. 

“EVERYONE PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES UNTIL FURTHUR NOTICE. WE WILL BE BY EACH OF YOUR HOMES TO EXPLAIN THE SITUATION,” he yelled. 

Their once quiet block was filled with the sound of military trucks and solders marching. The sound of emergency vehicles and helicopters' rushing through the city was at an all-time high. 

“What is all the noise about?” Symphony’s dad said coming down the stairs. He was scratching at his crotch with one hand and his beard with the other. “Are they still crying about this new flu they’ve come up with?” 

“Yes, daddy!” 

He walked over to the window and stood next to his daughter. An ambulance pulled up at the house across the street. The paramedics got out and unloaded the stretcher. They were moving quickly as they entered the house. There was a scream and what sounded like a gunshot. 

“What the hell!” Symphony said. 

“She was always crazy,” her father said and walked away. “What’s for dinner?” 

“I went to the store, and they were closed,” her mother said. “The sign said closed due to contamination!” 

“I’ll sneak out the back and run to the corner market. If I cut through the neighbor's yards I can get there.” 

Her mother got up to get her purse. She reached in and handed Symphony her debit card. “Get whatever else you think we will need, if you can carry it. Looks like we are going to be here for a while.” 

Symphony goes to her room to change into a yoga suit and some tennis shoes. “Okay, I’ll be right back!” 

She goes out the back door and quietly climbs over their fence. She was on the track team in high school, and she still liked to stay in shape. The run would be a walk in the park for her. Luckily for her, they were the only ones with high fence. She didn’t have struggle to get over any of the others. She had to hide a few times to avoid the soldiers or the police officers patrolling the streets. There were two officers standing outside the store, but it looked like they were letting people in. She walked up calmly but out of breath from running.  

“We are shutting this store down, so hurry up and get what you need. Would you like a mask?” one of the officers asked. 

Symphony giggled a little. “No thank you!” she said and walked into the store. 

The store was full of familiar faces. “Hey girl! Can you believe this?” Symphony asked one of her neighbors. 

“I have to hurry and get back in the house,” the lady said through her mask. “The kids are at home alone.” 

“Do you really believe you need the mask?” 

The lady shook her head. “Hell, yes! Do you see what happens if you catch this illness? I have to go.... good luck!” She frantically walks away. 

Symphony grabs whatever she can think of in her arms and heads to the register. 

“Just take it,” the cashier says. “This doesn’t look like it's going to turn out too good, so just take it.” 

“What is everybody so excited about? Maybe I should watch the news! I haven’t really watched the news but are they really turning into monsters?” she asked the cashier. 

“They can’t figure out how it’s spreading. People running around biting people,” he says. He then sneezes right in her face. It was big sneeze. The kind where you see the particles fly from his mouth right into the air that everybody was breathing. “My bad!” 

“Damn! Thank you for the shower,” she said as she wiped her face. She threw her groceries into plastic bags quickly and left the store. 

She made it back home in no time and this time she used the front door. 

“Ma’am you are not supposed to be out of your house,” one of the soldiers said when he saw her. 

“So, you're telling me that this virus is going to make all of us go mad,” she asked him. “Please go back into your home now!” he said in a stern voice. They were wearing gas masks, so he kind of sounded like the guy in the space movie. 

She looked at him and proceeded up the stairs to her house. She opened the front door, and her father was there to meet her. He took the bags out of her hand just as she sneezed right in his face. She dropped the bag she was still holding on the floor. “My bad!” she said to her father as she picked the bag up. “I think some of the eggs cracked.” 

Her mother went into the kitchen to put away the groceries. Symphony went upstairs to take a bath and change into something comfortable. She rolled her a joint and smoked it while soaking in the tube. She was thinking about the date she was supposed to have that night. She hoped that all of this would be over by then. She sneezed again and this time speckles of blood covered her hand. She looked at it for a second before putting her hand under the water. She was sure that it was just because the air was dry. She used to have nose bleeds all the time as a kid. 

Symphony opened her eyes and realized that she had fallen asleep. She had been in there so long her skin began to wrinkle. She looked at the clock on the wall, hours had gone by and it was now dark outside. She got out and dried off before putting on her lounge wear. She stepped into the hallway and listened for a minute. There was a red glare shining off the wall, so she went over the window in the hallway. There were fires everywhere and smoke filled the air. 

“Momma, daddy, y’all see this?” she asked as she ran down the stairs. They weren’t on the couch, so she went to the kitchen. There was a bell pepper partially cut on the cutting board and the oven was on. There were little droplets of blood leading towards the basement door. “Momma, where y’all at?” she called out. Symphony opened the oven but there was nothing in it. She heard a knock on the basement door. It was a repeated knock, but it didn’t sound like a person. It sounded more like something was bouncing off the door. She walked over to the door and slowly opened it. “Daddy, are you okay?” 

He was sitting on the basement stairs rocking back and forth. “I think I’m sick baby!” he says. He reached up and rubbed his head. 

“Where’s momma?” she asked. She noticed blood on his hand and on the knife lying beside him. 

“I think I’m sick......you should close the door and leave. We should’ve listened!’ he said without turning around. “Your momma’s just fine! She just fine!”