Jade

Since Covid-19 has made our lives seem unreal, dreaming of a better world is all we can do. This is the story of a teenage girl struggling to find a way to escape our new reality

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Friday, March 13, 2020

The President had just announced a lockdown to avoid the spread of a new virus. People were saying we were all going to die, but it didn’t worry me. I was bummed about not seeing my friends, though. Whatever, this will only last a few weeks, then everything will go back to normal, right?

The next morning, I woke up at noon and went downstairs. My whole family was already up. My mom was cooking and my siblings were sitting on the couch, watching TV. I asked where my dad was and they told me he had gone for a run, which was weird since he’s usually lazy. Meanwhile, I was barely awake, still in my pyjamas. My mom and my sister had made a schedule for everything they wanted to do during this break that they never got to do before. Honestly, I was just happy about not going to school.

The first two weeks of quarantine were great. Despite the huge amount of school work we had, I slept a lot, watched movies and simply rested. The only problem was, quarantine never seemed to come to an end. These “holidays” that started in March, were still not over in June. I hadn’t left the house in four weeks. The school year was almost over. One of my favorite teachers was retiring next year, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him. This felt interminable. I hadn’t seen my friends in so long and our rare conversations were about school. I was no longer motivated to do anything. It was like my life had stopped and I couldn’t make it start again.

One morning, I woke up late and missed my first online class. I was failing most of my classes but I didn’t even care anymore. I looked at my phone, it was 9:55AM, Tuesday, June 16. I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Without realizing it, I found myself staring at my reflection in the mirror. Apart from my family’s, this was the only face I’d seen in over three months. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t stand myself, I couldn’t stand my family, I couldn’t stand my bedroom, I couldn’t stand my life. I wanted to look away, but all these thoughts coming in my mind were making me unable to move. Suddenly, I felt anger boiling inside of me. I lost control of my body and felt the urge to punch the mirror. My fist was about to touch it, I knew it was going to hurt but at least it’d calm me down, I thought. But instead of crashing into the mirror, my arm went right through it. I froze in terror. I wanted to pull my arm out and run to my room and pretend this never happened, but I was also curious. One limb at a time, with my eyes closed, I managed to get my whole body through the mirror. After standing there for a while, I decided to be brave and open my eyes. I looked around the room. The furniture appeared the same and all of our belongings were still here. Surprisingly, nothing had changed; but I felt different. I tried not to acknowledge this indescribable feeling and went downstairs. My family was there, like every day since March. Maybe I was just crazy and nothing had happened in the bathroom. Still confused, I decided to ignore what had just happened and go back to my room, until I heard a familiar voice calling my name.

“Gia,” whispered the voice. I turned around but didn’t see anyone. I heard it again, I looked around, and a terrifying thing happened. My family and the room around me started to disappear, but I didn’t budge. I couldn’t ignore these strange events anymore. Alone and terrified in a sort of gigantic yet empty field, I felt something touch my shoulder. I froze and began to imagine the worst, when I heard a familiar laugh. I turned around slowly and noticed my childhood friend, Jade, still laughing. Jade and I had been best friends since we were born, basically. Unfortunately, two years ago, she fell into a coma after a tragic car accident. She died the next day. I didn’t even get to visit her at the hospital. I really missed her. I eyed her up and down; she hadn’t changed at all. I couldn’t believe she was standing here in front of me. She was about two inches taller than me and her wavy brown hair fell over her shoulders. The rest of her body was curiously hard to distinguish, but I noticed that she was still wearing the necklace we made when we were kids.

“Jade?” I exclaimed, shocked but also relieved. I took her in my arms and hugged her tightly. It felt so great to have her back, I was determined not to lose her again. Nothing had been the same since she died. I fell into depression and even almost tried to commit suicide but I was lucky enough to get help before it was too late. I couldn’t even hold back my tears, never in a million years would I have thought that I would see Jade’s face again, but here she was. I finally let go of her and out of nowhere, she asked me where I wanted to go.

“What are you talking about? What happened? Why are you here? Where are we?”

“Where do you want to go?” she insisted.

She kept asking me this, while I was trying to understand this whole situation. After a while, I gave up and told her I wanted to go to the beach. She took my hand and closed her eyes, so I closed mine too. Less than a second later, I opened them again and we were at the beach. I couldn’t believe it. The sun was setting, the sand was cold and there were small groups of people talking and laughing. It looked like a real evening at the beach, before this virus changed everything. Ever since we were little, Jade’s dream was to go to the beach. Her parents never took her anywhere, they barely paid attention to her, so I promised her that one day, we would travel the world together, finally leave this town and never come back. She left before I could keep my promise, but she was back at last and we could make up for lost time. We sat down and started talking about random things, staring at the sunset for what felt like an eternity. Since the lockdown, I thought I had relapsed into depression, but the simple thought of Jade being here with me gave me hope for the future. It was as if the lockdown had never even happened. Everything was perfect, it felt like a dream. I didn’t want this day to end.

I was so carefree and joyful, I didn’t realize I was back in my bedroom, in front of my computer. My teacher had been talking on Zoom for about half an hour. How did I even get back home? I could see Jade’s face on my computer screen, in her small square next to the other students. How did she get home? I was so confused. I had to go back to the mirror in order to make sure this really happened. I turned my camera off and got up, but I was distracted by the sound of my phone. I had received a text from Jade that read: “come back tomorrow.” So I did.

I came back the next day, and we went to London. We walked around the city and went to all the most touristic places. It was crowded but no one was wearing masks or worrying about being sick, and if I’m being honest, I had missed this. We came across a flea market and tried on clothes and jewels. We hadn’t brought any money, but nothing seemed worth buying anyway. We were goofing around until a pair of earrings caught my eye. They were golden with an oval green stone in the center. I stared at them from a distance until a man approached me.

“I doubt that you can afford them,” he said. He looked old and was limping. I think he’s the owner of the booth.

“I’m sorry?”

“Do you have 320£?” asked the man.

“They’re probably fake anyways,” commented Jade.

He instantly got angry and took the earrings in his hands. He explained to us why they were real and where he got them but I didn’t really listen. After he finally stopped talking, I asked:

“Is it emerald?”

He looked at me in a scary way, as if what I had said had offended him.

“It’s jade. I wouldn’t sell emerald on a flea market.” he responded quietly before putting the jewels back and going to see other clients. Jade and I walked away. It’s too bad that they were so expensive, they were really beautiful. We were walking in silence when she tapped my shoulder. She put her hand forward and opened it. The pair of earrings was there. I was shocked but also excited. We decided to share and each put one earring on. We ran away laughing hard before we could get caught. This was the happiest I had ever been.

I came back the next day, and every day after that one. We would do different things every day. We even went back to school once. We were free. My life was finally exciting and meaningful again, I woke up each day looking forward to seeing Jade and going on new adventures.

One morning, I accidentally woke up late and missed my first online class. I heard my mom calling my name, she sounded angry. I decided to make the most mature decision and run away from my problems. I rushed into the bathroom to go see Jade. I felt like going to the mountains today. I was moving quickly because I wasn’t ready to face my mom and tell her I slept through my alarm. I went through the mirror and ran to Jade. I tried telling her I wanted to go to the mountains but the sound of my mom’s voice kept getting louder. Why could I still hear her? Everything went blurry and Jade started disappearing too. Abruptly, I was back in the bathroom and my mom was walking up the stairs. This had never happened before. I tried going back to the field, but I couldn’t manage to go through the glass this time. Instead, I hit my head hard against the mirror. Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt. I could hear my mom getting closer. Suddenly, I was back in the field, but Jade wasn’t here. I could still hear my mom. The next instant, I was in New York, then in the mountains, then at the beach. I thought I was losing my mind. Everything was going so fast and I was struggling to breathe. I tried to shout for Jade but she was nowhere to be found. Finally, I opened my eyes and felt a hand on my shoulder. The sight of my mother’s face right above mine made me jump. I was finally able to breathe again. Lying in my bed, I looked around the room; everything was calm again.

“Are you deaf, Gia? It’s almost ten! Why are you still sleeping?” barked my mom. She didn’t leave me the time to answer. “I have to get back to work but promise me you’re going to apologize to your teachers and attend all of your next classes.” She angrily left the room. I was sitting on my bed, motionless. I looked at my phone, it was 9:55AM, Tuesday, June 16, 2020. It made no sense. I wanted to text Jade but I noticed the conversations we had disappeared. In fact, we hadn’t talked since 2018. I knew she never woke up from the accident but being with her again just felt so amazing, I wanted to believe it so badly. Numb, I sat down in front of my computer. My next class was about to start. I was the first one to be connected. Jade wasn’t here. The teacher called on me but I wasn’t listening. My head hurt and I was dizzy. I knew what this meant but I guess I wasn’t ready to accept it. I was back to reality. I wished and prayed for the mirror, the field, Jade and the memories to be real, but deep down I knew the truth. Only in my dreams could I get out of this house and was Jade still alive. I couldn’t help but cry. I got up and went to check the mirror one last time, just to make sure. Once again, I was staring at my reflection and hating what I was seeing. I hated myself for believing this stupid dream. I decided to try and get over it and walked back into my room. I wiped my tears away and got back to my Zoom class. I turned my camera on and pretended I had a connection issue. I looked at myself on the screen to see if it was obvious that I had cried, but I noticed something strange. I looked closer and realized that I was still wearing the jade earring.