Rhia is slowly understanding that something very strange is happening in the world right now. She calls it “The Sickness.”
“The library is still closed? It’s been closed for weeks!” she says, putting her library books back on the shelf where she keeps them separate from her own books.
“I know, but there are a lot of people sick right now, so the library needs to stay closed,” I say.
“First everybody is sick at your work, and now there is a sickness at the library… That’s silly!”
“You’re right. It is.”
“Why is everybody so sick?”
“There’s a bad germ that can make people sick. That’s why we’re staying home so we don’t get sick too. And if we stay home it helps other people not get sick.”
Rhia is quite for a moment, then she says, “I remember when I was little there was a sickness at my school and we all had to get a shot. I didn’t like that.”
Many years ago there was a meningitis outbreak at Rhia’s Elementary school. “I remember, too.”
“I didn’t like getting a shot. Do they have a shot for the sickness now?”
“No. That’s part of the problem. If there was a shot, then people wouldn’t get so sick.”
“Hmmm…” Then she asks, sounding worried, “Do people always get sick in San Francisco?”
“No. This is just a weird sickness happening now, but not always.”
“When will people stop getting sick?”
“I don’t know. Maybe in the summer.”
“It doesn’t make any sense! Why is the sickness now?”
“No one knows, Sweetie. We just have to wait until it ends.”
“I think that’s just silly!”
“I agree.”
She thinks again, then says, “Can we go to the library next week?”
I don’t know how to tell her Disneyland is closed too.