Bright

It was bright, so bright. His hand naturally shielded his bright blue eyes. Such a change from the dark loneliness of the windowless quarantine. Alas, it was finally over.

Being from Canada, he arrived in his home country to find they had instituted a law during the time abroad. People whom lived in Canada but were out of the country during the COVID-19 outbreak were subject to mandatory quarantine for two weeks upon their return. That angered him to no end. He stewed in it for what seemed every waking second.

How he longed; to hold his daughter and look into her oceanic blue/green eyes. To listen to her two-and-a-half year old not full laugh but oh so cute. The sweetest half giggle, half laugh anyone ever heard. The sounds cracked together. It was a winsome crackle. To watch her tiny hands as they smoothed her dolls hair with stern intent. How she exuded her love as if it were a tangible fluid substance radiating from her. He pined for it all.

But now he was finally on his way home. He looked out the car window, seeing everything in this new bright light. The world seemed so much more alive and bright. The wind whistled outside the SUV. It was strong, so strong the gusts felt as though he was fighting a flat tire to keep it between the lines. None of that mattered. He would see his daughter… finally.

The roads were near empty, most still not feeling the world safe enough to overcome the already entrenched stir crazy. Driving, he couldn’t help thinking about how the world looked new, bright, yet desolate, yet full of life.

He wished his phone had not died the first day. He wished they had granted access to one but quarantine meant no contact, locked in a cell, a comfortable cell but still a cell. The confinement made him envision with love and clarity how Em, his daughter would run and jump up into his arms gripping him with as much strength as leaves holding onto their branch midst a hurricane. It had been two weeks since he had heard her delicate little voice.

As he pulled into the driveway, his heart fluttered. It literally stopped for a millisecond. He could not have told friend nor stranger the reason, but something was drastically wrong. As he walked up to the door, it was dawning on him; the house looked deserted. Em wasn’t running out to embrace him. Where was Em and her encompassing smile of love?

He ran so fast an onlooker wouldn’t be sure if he would run through the door before opening it. The house was empty. Sure, it had furnishings, but it was devoid of life. Even the plants, healthy as they were, looked lifeless to him. Where was that bright?

He searched but found no note… no message anywhere. He plugged in his phone. There was that familiar tone, 247 new messages. The texts so angry, it would surprise all his hands did not catch flame. 243 of those messages sucked the bright out of his world forever. Em was in the hospital she had contracted the virus. Sifting through to find the less heated, he discovered it was dire. "Where was he?" his daughter was dying. "Where was he?" she needed her father. "Where was he?"… Em was asking for him. The grasping questions never ceased.

Reading, he envisioned hearing the tears running down his wife’s face as his first struck his mobile. The final message, dourly saying his wife was at her mother’s place making funeral arrangements.