FIRST DAY OF QUARANTINE
As usual, Millie woke up before the sunrise with a bright smile on her face. Her smile faded when she remembered she cannot step out of her house. So she yawned and hugged her pillow back to stay on the bed for some more time. Eventually, she fell asleep again. Millie woke up to the barking Scooby asking to take him for a walk as she did not take him yesterday too. She slowly woke up and stretched out when Scooby jumped onto the bed. There was no missed calls nor any notification on her phone. But it was already thirty minutes past seven.
Millie slowly cleaned herself up and made herself a mug of coffee. She enjoyed the coffee while reading the magazine she brought two days ago but never got the time to read. The coffee didn't give the warmth or the energetic feeling like the other days. So Millie thought of roughly cleaning the house as it was already cleaned perfectly. She was not feeling so good as she was preoccupied in her mind thinking about the upcoming fourteen days. Even the cleaning took more time than usual. After the cleaning was done, Millie fed Scooby and made herself some breakfast. She opened the can of oats she brought yesterday and made some spicy oats porridge for herself.
Wearing comfortable pajamas, Millie jumped back to her bed with the novel she was reading the day before. But she woke up to the knocking sound of her front door.
"Oh no!
It's already 10 o'clock."
Millie washed her face quickly and went to check who was knocking on the door so hard. She checked who was there through the window and saw some cops and health officers. She quickly wore a mask and opened the door for them.
"Miss Millie?"
There stood a tall and handsome police officer in front of Millie asking for her. She stood still for a moment and cleared her throat.
"Yes, I am Millie.
Is this from the national health service center?"
"Yes ma'am.
We are the quarantine team from the national health service, and we came here to notify you about the fourteen days of self-isolation that has been entitled upon you."
Millie was getting nervous as she heard those words. She slowly wiped her sweat without being noticed. She was watching those healthcare workers pasting the posters of quarantine on her gates. Then got back to the moment when the police officer cleared his throat.
"There is nothing to worry about.
You just have to make sure that you don't step out of your house. You may stay in the garden when nobody is around."
Millie felt so relieved when the police officer told that to her. She was overjoyed to hear that.
"Thank you so much, sir.
It would mean the world to me."
"Oh, that's not a big issue.
Please call me Mike."
He smiled while saying that. Millie was lost in his smile for a moment. Then she noticed some men fully covered in white uniforms were unloading some sealed boxes.
"They are some needed stuff for the next two weeks.
The staff will keep them where you want to have them.
Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything else, Millie."
He winked at Millie while writing down something on some official paper. Then he gave Millie his visiting card and asked her to sign the papers to confirm that she has received the goodies for her two weeks of quarantine. After settling the packages inside the house where Millie asked to keep them, the officers left with their vehicles. But the police officer came towards Millie and said a friendly goodbye before leaving. Millie was quite confused about his behavior.
It was time for lunch. But Millie did not feel like having anything at all. Even Scooby was strangely quiet the whole day. She checked on Scooby and wore her mask back to check the packages that she received from the national health service and the quarantine center.
There was a huge box and a few other medium-sized boxes to be opened. Millie slowly opened the huge box and checked inside. There was a load of food items such as fresh fruits and vegetables, groceries, and spices. Millie was surprised to see all those food items that has been sent to her. She felt that the police officer Mike has something to do with this.
Then she opened the other boxes as well. There were packets of pasta, tins of corn and beans, cheese bars, yogurt, butter, eggs, and sauce in one of the boxes. One other box contained toilet paper, sanitizers, sanitary napkins, and tissue paper. The last box contained some packets of sausages, tins of tuna spread, meatballs, fish, and chicken in it. Millie felt happy and suspicious at the same time. Definitely Mike the police officer has something to do with these extraordinary things sent to her.
Millie slowly arranged all the items in their given places and folded the cardboard boxes. Then she fed Scooby and made herself a delicious smoothie bowl from the fruits she had received from the quarantine center. There was no other work to be done by Millie. So she decided to get back into her room. That was when she noticed that the study table was filled with her files and books. Millie cleaned up the study table and arranged all the books in her backpack so she could easily find them whenever she needed them.
"I'll miss being at the uni"
Millie moaned for a moment. She walked towards the living room to check if the door was locked properly. That was when she noticed a gift box on her coffee table. She slowly went towards it and checked. There was a name card.
"With Care from XoXo"
Millie started wondering who might have kept this here. Then she remembered that nobody than the quarantine people came today and when she went inside someone must have kept it. She groaned.
"It must be that handsome police officer. His smile was strange though"
Millie whispered that and opened the box. The box was full of chocolates nuts and candy. She could not believe her eyes.
"Whoever sent this has done a kind job"
Millie ate one candy and put the other stuff inside the refrigerator. Then she ran into her bedroom and jumped onto her bed to have a nap. She played some nice background music and slowly closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again it was almost dark everywhere. She slept until sunset. Millie could not get up from the bed at any time. She stayed on the bed and spoke to herself.
" I can't do this every single day.
Am I going to spend the next two weeks like this?
Hell noooo!
I should probably plan out my fourteen days of quarantine very well.
Also, I don't have any other work.
Yes. This will be the perfect time to do the things I always wanted to do but never got the time or chance to do."
Then Millie jumped off the bed and went onto her study table. She started wondering what should she do on these days. The first thing that popped into her mind was maintaining a journal that she always wanted to do. She wrote down that in her diary. Then she wrote down some other tasks that she would like to do on these fourteen days as well.
Millie felt like she needed a warm shower to get energized for the evening. She checked on Scooby and had a relaxing warm shower. Then Millie called her best friend for a small chit-chat. She ended up talking to her best friend Sally until her stomach started making sounds of hunger. They both were best friends from the first day of university life. Millie hung up with her and started making some chicken and corn soup with garlic bread for dinner. Scooby loved to have the leftover corn Millie gives him while making any dish using corn.
Millie sat on the sofa with the tv switched on to watch some news while having her dinner. The news reporter started the headlines with information on the coronavirus. The number of deaths and patients was decreasing yet they were getting positive results from sudden antigen tests here and there in the town. Millie switched to a music channel and had her dinner peacefully. Because the news was a bit too much for her to process with the situation she was going through at the moment.