By Bettina Harvey
The voice of a nurse comes through the phone speaker as she tries to console me. She tells me, “The test is positive.” My stomach instantly drops, tears falling down my face, anxiety rushing through me as I sit on the side of my bed trembling in fear. My body clenches tightly from the news, so much that my face blanches and my phone falls from my hand as I’m overwhelmed by emotion. The white and black polaroid photos of my friends and I smiling through the years that adorn the walls around me feels like a distant memory. I can hear the muffled sound of shuffling feet from my parents downstairs, pacing the tiled kitchen floor, unaware of the sudden news. My door swings open. A mask covers most of my dad’s face hiding his concerned expression. He can already tell from the tears falling down my face what the news is.
“We will work this out,” he assures me, voice tight with emotion. As he closes the door, the last moments of human contact leave, and the reality of isolation hits me.
Bettina Harvey is a sophomore honors student from Massachusetts studying finance and IMT. She is very passionate about dance and yoga. She wrote some pieces based on her quarantine experience over the summer.
