182 - Covid

*I told yeh, the world is going to change, it’s never gonna be the same again. – Nessie*

Nessie in her infinite wisdom that no one even questioned any more, already had a plan. She had taken over an empty room on the second floor and filled it with to-go boxes of every size and shape. The girls that worked for her were moved into the Shack, some with their kids.

The extended spring break was exciting at first. But then the large building seemed to shrink with the extra people. The tattoo shop had to shut down completely. Brothers and old ladies that needed work were provided with jobs to help them pay their bills.

Brothers with families spent more time at their homes. Doc and a few other staff members at the hospital rented an apartment together, reducing their exposure to their loved ones.

Ink became a stay-at-home dad, which he discovered that moms did not get enough credit. Chance and Karan kept the Clubhouse Daycare open and utilized the extra rooms to allow more space between the kids.

Siobhan and Molly arranged for monthly and then weekly food distributions. The flowers utilized the greenhouse and high school gardens to provide fresh vegetables to the community.

For the parents that still had to work when school started again, virtual classes were held in the dining hall for the younger kids that needed reminders to pay attention. The older kids congregated in the media room and front room. Club girls with no other current job to go to, found themselves becoming impromptu teachers.

Mia’s kids went to Charlotte’s house while she was at the Cookie Jar. Celt worked from home and helped Carly keep her ranch running as they finalized the move to the new location. The shops were busy with maintenance that people had put off for too long.

Cookie, his crew and the other trades were booked out as Celt and Cookie both snatched up flip and rental properties. Pagan’s guys were working from their home forges and those who did not have one were still going into the shop.

Sticks moved all orders online and his special needs employees were given projects to work on at home. The shop workers split out into rotating shifts to allow more space between the workers and to provide time with their family and the ability to keep an eye on their kids.

Rye and Evie learned how to teach virtually. Evie would later describe her job going from teaching a couple hundred teenagers about history, government and social interactions to simply keeping them alive. Most of her classes ended up being talking about how they were dealing with everything.

When Tammy’s maternity leave was over, she did not feel comfortable going back into the clinic. She took the new virtual appointments and slowly changed Becks’ office to her own. But there were some things in the office that she could not change.

*Sammiches*

No one could get rid of the misspelled word that Becks had always used for sandwiches.

Patch kept the Animal hospital on skeletal staff. The animal shelter that they ran was empty with everyone getting on the bandwagon of adopting animals. Molly’s dogs had to get used to having two cats in the house after Case went to the clinic with Alicia one day. The older woman had seen the picture of the cats that Case had and wondered if the new cats were the same as in the picture.

As soon as the two exotic shorthair cats saw her, they rushed to the door of the cage and meowed loudly. She had opened the door just before Grumpasaurus and Sir Sourpuss leapt out at her. The hotel that she was still staying at, did not allow pets and Alicia had taken them to the family compound.

By the time Case moved into one of the spare rooms, the cats had made themselves at home. Sticks had made custom cat condos, trees and climbing shelves that were scattered throughout the five houses. When she saw everything that the family had gotten her cats, she joked that she had no choice but to move in.

With no job, and limited savings, she accepted the place to stay as she took a break from nursing. After the lockdown started, she found herself in high demand. But she unable to expose her new family to the disease sweeping around the world. Instead, she rearranged the game room and became the homeschool teacher for all the younger little Lowerys.

Yvonne’s family moved to take out only at all three of their restaurants. She worked in the back office of the main restaurant, commonly called the big hat Mexican by Alana, ordering supplies and adjusting the menu to accommodate the shortages.

Michaela went stir crazy for the first few weeks until Cookie came out and built her a small salon in a shed on the property. She would only see a few people a day, and they were all affiliated with the club. Everything was booked over the phone, and she worked for free. Her tip jar was never empty.

When restrictions were finally lifted, Molly handed her keys to a new salon in Ridgeview that overlooked the river. She rented two of the four stations and allowed a recently certified cosmetologist to build up her own clientele before she moved to another salon.

Priscilla and Camille were kept busy updating the websites as everything moved virtual. Priscilla moved out of Chance’s house and into a small apartment with Leo. She later moved into her own house out on the farm across from her best friend. The musketeers would eventually join them on the second cul-de-sac on the farm where they raised their families together.

Teenagers within the club moved in with families that had younger kids and needed help while the parents were working. Priscilla was already living with Chance and Rye. Eliza moved in with one of the other young families and Molly had to admit that his little pretties were growing up.

Eliza and the other seniors lost their prom, senior field day, awards ceremonies and then their graduation. The elementary kids lost their end of year field trips and field days. Kindergarten graduation. Awards ceremonies. FFA show. Sports events.

The list of what all was being taken away from them kept growing.

And then, word rippled through the clubhouse of this person being sick. And then that one. And then another. And another. By early April, they had lost the first Saint to the pandemic that was leaving no one untouched. Orphans were adopted by relatives or family related only by leather.

The club was still reeling with the death of Brute when a bright and colorful glimmer of hope was sprinkled around the three cities. Early on Easter morning, people all around town woke up to find dozens of eggs filled with candies and toys tossed out in yards.

For a few hours, kids were allowed to be kids and parents could breathe a sigh of relief. The only thing that any of the houses had in common was that they each had kids. The following year, when the world was still topsy turvy, it happened again on a slightly larger scale.

It continued to grow until it took on a life of its own and suddenly there was a website where you could anonymously submit a house for egging.

On Easter in 2024, Molly watched his first granddaughter do her first easter egg hunt while Priscilla stood watching her husband with their three-year-old as she ran with her aunts and uncles gathering the plastic eggs.

“This is the first year that I’ve got to see kids wake up and find eggs in their yards.” Priscilla looked at her parents with tears in her eyes. “Is this what it was like that first Easter? Back in 2020?”

“Yes, little pretty, it was this amazing.”

*Author’s note – In 2020, with the local Easter Egg Hunt being cancelled, I found myself having about a hundred plastic eggs and nothing to do with them. I made a crazy suggestion to my fifteen-year-old son who loved the idea. As part of his ‘night driving’ hours to get his driver’s license, we drove around and egged houses of friends and family. We got caught only once and hit only one wrong house. But the next day when Facebook was flooded with happy kids finding a surprise in their yards, we knew something started there. Because so many hunts had been cancelled, the local stores had a lot on clearance after Easter. We bought two buggies full of eggs and filler. When we told friends and family, donations poured in for the next year. I have a whole closet full of eggs just waiting for next spring.*