This is a fictional story. All names, places, and viruses are used fictitiously. Resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, past or present, are intentional.
If you haven’t read from the beginning, please start at Chapter 1 here.
***
Due Date: 119 days away
Dale was the first to call out.
He’d been out since that Friday. We didn’t really know why, assumed he had a fever or something. Everyone was talking about the virus by then, but it didn’t occur to me at that point that guys calling out might actually have the virus.
After toilet paper weekend, everyone asked how Dale was doing.
We didn’t know.
And then we did.
Jerry heard back from him.
The doctors said Dale had pneumonia. But—surprise!—they couldn’t test him for the virus. They didn’t have enough tests.
“That’s crazy,” I told Jerry. “If anyone should be tested, it’s Dale.”
We went and talked with Chris in his office. It was the first time I purposely stood six feet away from either of them.
“So if anyone asks in this meeting?” I looked from Jerry to Chris. “What are we telling everyone?”
Chris continued to type on his computer. “Tell the truth.”
“Tell them he has pneumonia?” Jerry asked.
“Yes.” Chris stopped typing and looked at Jerry. “That’s exactly what I’m going to tell them.”
I jumped in. “And tell them he wasn’t able to get tested for the virus?”
“As far as we know, he does not have it.”
I felt uneasy about that. It was accurate, but if someone was at home, coughing and having respiratory problems, pneumonia or not, I would’ve wanted to know. Especially if I worked closely with him. In our all-hands meeting just the week before, we had techs sitting shoulder to shoulder with him.
I looked to Jerry and then back to Chris. “Okay,” I said.
Jerry nodded in agreement.
“What about Brandon?” I asked.
Brandon was the second to call out. He’d been exposed to someone who had the virus. When he texted me that morning, I immediately told him to stay home and I’d get back with him. The details of the story changed from how I initially understood it. But by then, I’d already told him to self-quarantine, at least until the end of the week.
“Brandon is still out until Friday,” Chris said.
“Has anyone else talked to him,” I asked.
No one had.
We just didn’t need anyone else calling out.
