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“I already ate mine,” Layne replied.
“Good,” her mom repeated. “Then, go into your room so I can grab my plate. I don’t want you near me right now, Layne. And we should both wear masks around the house now. At least, outside of our rooms.”
“Okay. Mom, what–”
“Everything is going to be fine, honey. I’m going to be fine. Keep yourself healthy. I’m going to eat what you made me and take a shower. I’ll put my clothes in a trash bag, and we’ll leave them in my room for a while, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Okay. Then, get to your room so I can eat.”
Layne had never wanted to hug and hold on to her mother more than in this moment, when she couldn’t. Her mom nodded for Layne to go to her bedroom, so Layne did. She closed her door behind her and listened at it. Her mom must have grabbed her plate and a trash bag from the kitchen. Layne heard her mom’s bedroom door open and then close. She had no idea what to do now. Everything felt different. Jessop had gotten sick, and Layne knew her, obviously, but that was different. Plenty of other students had gotten sick, too, but Layne didn’t really know them. Now, her mom, the person she was closest to in the world, had it and didn’t seem overly concerned about the fact that people were dying from this thing.
Layne both wanted to rush her mom to the hospital to have them take care of her, and not send her there at the same time because she knew they were busy with people who also had this horrible thing and that being around them might make it worse instead of better. She didn’t know what to do, so she waited for several minutes just standing by her door until she heard her mom’s door open.
“Mom?”
“I’m just going to take a shower now. I’m okay.”
“Okay,” she replied helplessly. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
“I know, honey.”
Layne heard the bathroom door close, so she walked over to her full bed and sat down on it as if waiting for more directions. Was she supposed to go clean the plate and utensils her mom just used? Should she get her mom supplies for her bedroom and stack them outside the bedroom door for her to take in so she’d have snacks and other things and wouldn’t have to leave the room? If she did that, how long should she wait now before leaving her own room? The air might still have the virus in it. She doubted her mom put a mask on just to go from her bedroom to the bathroom across the hall. All these thoughts made her sit frozen instead, unable to think about anything other than feeling helpless and worried that she’d already lost her dad way too young. Was she about to lose her mom, too?
When she could finally move, Layne reached for her phone and, at first, went to call Shay back, but then she changed her mind and went to find an appointment to get tested herself. So far, she felt fine, but if her mom had it, and they’d been in the apartment together, the odds were that Layne already had it herself and just wasn’t showing symptoms yet. She found something at a drive-up testing facility that would work and decided not to tell her mom about it yet. If she was negative, there was no need to worry her. And if she was positive, Layne would have to tell her, and they’d need to figure out how to deal with it, with them both being sick.
She lay back on her pillow and thought about how they hadn’t hugged that morning because her mom was late. They’d shared breakfast, but only for a few minutes, and they hadn’t talked much. Layne went back to the previous day in her mind and then, the day before that, too, trying to think about her possible level of exposure. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She was supposed to start her internship on Monday, but her mom had COVID, and no one had a vaccine or any real medicine that seemed to work yet.
“God, what if I lose her, too?” she asked her ceiling.
CHAPTER 17
“It’s good?” Shay asked. “Officially?”
“Yes, the paperwork is officially official,” her coach said with a laugh. “You have a fifth year of eligibility. I’ve sent everything in that was required, along with everything you had to fill out and turn in, and everything has been approved.”
“Oh, thank God! This was taking so long… I deferred my graduation, and I worried that I’d made a mistake.”
Shay didn’t mention that she ended up failing a class that had been a requirement, so she wouldn’t have graduated anyway.
“Not a mistake. This is going to be one hell of a basketball season, Shay.”
“There’s no worry things will get canceled again?”
“There’s always a chance. You know things aren’t going well with COVID. But the NCAA has time to figure out how to handle things now. We’re talking about daily tests, and if you get an inconclusive or positive, you can’t practice or be involved in team activities until you get a negative result after a period of time. They’re still working out the logistics of all of it, but we’re trying to figure out a way at Dunbar to get in some early off-season practices without calling them official practices to keep everyone together and focused when the school year starts. Prepare for some non-required runs where you stay away from everyone on the road or the track, or some sprints up and down the court, but only half the team does them at a time or something. We’re still tossing ideas around. We’ll have weight room time, too, but everyone will be scheduled. We’ll just do the best we can until the season starts. And, I guess, we’ll do the best we can then, too.”
“Okay. I guess that’s all anyone can ask. I’m just excited that I get a chance to play again.”
“So am I, Shay. Not everyone decided to stick around. Stoll, as you know, graduated. Martin and, well, you and Hilton are the only ones who decided to say, so we’ll be in a bit of a rebuilding year, but we’ve got two incoming freshmen on scholarship, and I’m sure we’ll get some walk-ons as well.”
“Just two on scholarship?”
“Unfortunately, yes. We had five, which would’ve worked out well since we lost five seniors, but we’ve had three de-commits in the past few weeks.”
“Why?”
“I think because of what’s going on, mainly. One did commit somewhere else closer to home. She’d had an offer there as well and just wanted to stay near her family, which I can understand. Similar to the other two who de-committed. So, we’re still looking at how to replace them, and I’ve got a list of possible players I’ve been reaching out to, but Layne was a walk-on before she’d earned her scholarship. Anything can happen, right?”
