Lockdown: The Arcadia Diaries

Riot

Present day

Phoenix, Arizona

May 27, 2020

Faith Jones

"Feeling better now?" Terra asks me as Gemma and I log on to Zoom and kick-start another session. I take a deep breath and nod; I'd spent the rest of yesterday doing other things to clear my thoughts and get my mind off the trauma of retelling the events that occurred at the hospital. Based on what happened yesterday, everybody concluded that I wasn't ready to tell the group what happened in the hospital and decided that either I wait until another time, or someone else do it in my place.

"Where's Clorinda?" I ask, noticing that Clorinda Price is no longer participating.

"Yeah, she got held up with prior commitments and couldn't make it today," Terra replies. "But Valeriana's here. You remember her, right?"

"Ciao!" Valeriana waves at me, smiling sweetly. "Feeling better?"

I smile back and nod. "I'm fine now. Thanks for asking."

"Look, Clorinda and I talked yesterday," Terra says softly. "Maybe either Kyle or I could talk about the events at the hospital. If, at any point, you feel uncomfortable, you can just leave, okay?"

I nod. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea. I still don't feel comfortable talking 'bout it right now."

"Memories are still raw?" Terra asks me.

Before I can respond, the ZOOM interface dings and Charles joins the meeting, accompanied by Kyle, Anna, Alana, Albert, Glenda, and Chaybree, much to my surprise. "Hey, y'all!" Chaybree squeals, as if delighted to see us. "Sorry I'm late. Glenda sent me the invite."

"You're fine," Terra says. "How's it going over there, Albert?"

Albert laughs. "It's going quite well, thank you for asking. My mother is out running errands."

"Is that so?" Kyle asks. He then introduces Albert to Chaybree and Glenda, who happens to vaguely remember Albert. 

"I think I interviewed you after you were discharged from the hospital," Glenda says to Albert. "At the hospital?"

Albert laughs. "I remember you having shorter hair."

"Well, I was still on the clock," Glenda replies awkwardly. "Anyway how've you been?"

"Doing quite all right. Yourself?" Albert asks sweetly.

"Well, you know, just surviving," Glenda replies.

Albert laughs a little. "That's good. Like the rest of us, I guess."

I'm the next person to speak. "Hey, Glenda! Remember me?"

Glenda looks at me and scratches her chin. "I might have..."

"I think I saw you at the hospital," I reply. "Yeah, I think you interviewed me."

"Oh, yeah, that's right!" Glenda's eyes widen in remembrance. "I remember interviewing you before it all went to...You okay?"

Glenda notices my apprehensive look and begins to turn to other people in the chat. "She okay?"

"Yeah, she had a panic attack yesterday when she tried to tell us what happened in the hospital," Terra says to Glenda. "I told Faith earlier today that if she felt uncomfortable sharing about her experiences at any point, she could just leave the meeting."

"Sounds like a plan," Glenda replies, before smiling at me. 

I clear my throat before speaking again. "Yeah, I still get nightmares from the, uh, incident at the hospital."