County Clare 2020:
A Day in My Life
Creative Writing Competition for children and teenagers
Shortlisted 13 to 15 category
County Clare 2020: A Day in My Life
- The Befallen Homicidal Disaster
by David Collins
I awoke on a rickety bed in a dimly lit room with clothes and different kinds of rubbish scattered around the floor. In Clare, 2020.
That day I didn’t feel like getting up, didn’t feel like hearing today’s death count….didn’t feel like seeing if my coronavirus-infected family members were ok. It all started with my sister getting the virus. When I and my family found out, I thought to myself that it’ll be fine, that the virus doesn’t affect kids. But after each day it seemed that she was getting worse and worse, coughing more vigorously and vigorously. All I can say is that she wasn’t herself. Whenever I saw her she was consumed by depression, and very soon, you’ll understand that the coronavirus is contagious with not only disease, but sadness, and had sadly infected my father too with despair. Since he wouldn’t be able to do the work necessary in the farm anymore, my mother and I had to take his place as well as looking after him and my sister.
To be honest, it was one of the most difficult times of my life. But we persevered and got through the work in a relatively efficient manner. Everything was going smoothly all things considered… until my two year old brother got infected with the unprecedented disease. It was just my mother and I left, the rest of my family imprisoned in their small rooms. I was concerned, immensely concerned for my unfortunate siblings and father. My mother tried to care for them as best she could from a distance but would forbade me to even go up the stairs! I thought she felt a tremendous amount of trepidation that I might be next because of the phenomenal rate that the virus was transmitting through our family. In earnest I was anxious about getting the virus, but at that time, I didn’t realise its fatal potential.
Eventually, I got out of bed and walked out of my room to the smell of a
fried egg being cooked and the audible sound of Leo Varadkar’s voice
issuing the death toll of the virus today. Weak to the bones with fatigue,
I walked languidly across the hall down the stairs to the kitchen to investigate.
Little did I know, I would see the hunched back of my infected father by the
counter doing the cooking. “Oi, what the hell are you doing out of bed,
are you trying to get me and mum sick!” I bellowed furiously”
in stupefaction. My dad froze in fear for a few seconds, then turned to face
me. “David-cough!-I’ve been in bed for the past few days-cough!-
I didn’t think you’d be up-cough!- I was going to clean the place
up after I was done!” quivered my father. Dad was in a terrible state.
He had bags under his eyes, he couldn’t stop trembling and his coughs
were as loud as hearing a lion roar. But I did feel sorry for him, he had
stayed in his room for quite some and I thought even infected people need
some time to get out. “Oh,alright,but try to cough and sneeze in your
elbow” I decided.
“Thanks David, I really do need th-”
But the end of dad’s sentence was quenched by the sound of the front
door opening and by my mother’s and some other mysterious fellow with
a lab coat’s loud footsteps. The two were in the room in nanoseconds.
“Leonard, it’s Emma,” said mother worryingly. “What
do you mean it’s Emma” retorted father, perplexed.” I’m
doctor Luke” explained the doctor. He paused dramatically and announced
despondently “Your daughter is slowly and painfully dying. She has succumbed
to the virus like no other and her whole body is disabling , including her
brain soon”. Mother’s and father’s cries and sniffles rent
the air as we made our way to my sister Emma’s room. “Get the
rest of our children, no virus should stop them from seeing their sister for
the last time,” cried Mother to Dad who nodded solemnly.
When my family and I reached the room, gripping each others hands we saw
an eerily still girl laying on her bed looking serene-like. Screams of remorse
rent the air, tears were shed. She was dead. I only felt misery.
Misery. Misery. Misery. Only misery.
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