Why is there no space in this house? My older sister Emma and I have been sharing a room for the past week and it has been miserable. Since my grandparents moved in with us I had to give up my room. Our house is very compact so it feels like every corner I turn I am running into people. My grandparents moved in from Ireland and Dad and Mom say I need to take extra good care of them. Sometimes, I tend to be very grumpy and moody because of the frustration of not having a way to entertain myself. From the morning to afternoon for the next few weeks, my sister and I are occupied with the virtual school on Zoom.  For entertainment, I like to go on my phone but I have a screen time of 2 hours per day. My grandma loves to play board games with me but it gets very boring playing chess every single day.

My name is Jenna

My name is Emma

I lose every time, but I have nothing else to do in a small apartment located in Morristown, Nj five minutes away from the busy Morristown Hospital. 

    ‘What are you up to?” my older sister Emma asks, walking into our bedroom. 

    “ Not much, why?”  I question trying not to make eye contact. .

    “I am stuck in this house. I don’t care about the covid pandemic. I want to leave and get some fresh air,”  Emma exclaims.

   “Well, only if Mom lets you, and besides Grandpa can get very sick from the virus if he were to get it,” I murmur, trying not to get my sister all grumpy and annoyed,“Want to play a game of cards?” I ask, looking at her curly brown hair expecting she would say no.

 “No! I don’t like to play with cheaters like you,” she says rudely.

That is how our conversations end most of the time. My sister is pretty close in age. I am fourteen and she is sixteen so we have a lot in common which leads to many fights.  As I hear the news Mom is watching on the tv they constantly mention the covid pandemic is getting worse and worse. Dad told me about the CDC guidelines on how to be safe during the virus. Aftering knowing the seriousness of the deadly virus I often get yelled at by my family for complaining about the lack of space we have in this tiny apartment and for asking to leave the house. My parents Dave and Sideny both work really hard but money has been tight.

    We argue every night about who gets the bed and who sleeps on the floor. Every morning our day starts by my grandparents walking into the kitchen trying to find the oatmeal that had been delivered to our apartment. Oatmeal is vital for our family’s daily routine, and grandma ascertains we have enough for months if not we stock up. Mom uses an app called Instacart to deliver snacks and products to our house. With the covid pandemic reaching its peak, leaving the house for any reason was not even to be thought about. After breakfast my sister and I go on to do our own things. Since we share a room we mostly fight over useless things.

 “Jenna! you loser! look what I have in my hand,” Emma exclaims  trying to get on my nerves.

    “No, don't steal my phone!” I exclaimed about to chase after her.

    I look at her with an evil stare and was trying not to get on her nerves. The way she takes my phone and anything else is always in an aesthetic way because of her long fingers, although it can be very annoying. 

    “Girls I do not want to hear you fight again! Your dad and I are going through very rough times right now and you two girls fighting in the background is not getting any better,” my mother Sideny shouts, not expecting a word back from  us.

    “Why Mom what are you and Dad dealing with?”  I ask acting like a mature fourteen-year-old for the first time in her life. 

    “Well I am surprised you asked, this is a facetious issue because we have been receiving many emails and calls from the bank about our financial situation. We are a little behind on bills, but that is not for you guys to worry about. Dad and I will take care of it,” Mom spoke in a soft voice hoping Grandma or Grandpa won’t hear.

I realized how hard it was to keep a secret from one person when we live so close to each other. Now that school is over my sister and I banter back and forth almost every single day. As I predicted that the virus would be over it only got worse. By the end of 2020, around 6 million covid cases were reported in the U.S. The state of New Jersey along with many others called for lockdown which led to where we are today.  Towns near Morristown have reported many more covid cases than other parts of the state.  Along with my family worrying about the virus my 

    grandfather has not been feeling great. My grandpa is normally an emotive person but for some reason he was trying to cover his emotions to make us feel better.  Grandpa is taking his pills because of the heart problems he has. He has many infections that he needs to treat with medicine. Then overnight things got worse. I woke up the next morning to talk to my grandfather.

    “Grandpa, are you feeling better?” I ask, trying to be as innocent as possible.

‘    "Yes, sweety. I may not look ok, but I sure hope I feel better. I think it is just the medication that I am taking that is making me feel awful,” he answers from his bed with his eyes shut trying not to make me scared. 

A few days went by and Grandpa still had not been feeling the way he did a week ago. Mom and Dad have been checking on him constantly, and Grandma has been sleeping in another room in case he has covid. My parents were terrified thinking about Grandpa having covid and what it can do to his body. Grandpa is not the healthiest person I know for his age. He turned 79 and acts like he is still 25. Grandma has been trying to control him and teach him to take better care of his health but he refuses. Now that he is living with us Mom and Dad make sure he eats healthy and does not leave the house for any reason. My dad waited for a couple more days hoping Grandpa would feel better, but that is when he realized things were getting progressively worse and worse. That is when my parents thought it was necessary to bring him to the hospital despite the covid risks.

 At first, he refused but after convincing him for a while he accepted going to the hospital to check out his condition. 

    “ How far is the hospital?” I heard him ask my father.

    “Not too far away. Why is anything wrong,” my father questions.

    Right before we left the house for the first time in months my grandma started feeling shortness of breath. His body was trembling and I was lost in words of what to say. My sister quickly grew up out of her immature self and called the ambulance. He was unable to breathe and almost fainted. Luckily, for us the hospital is only five minutes away so the ambulance would show up almost instantly. I always wondered what the inside of an ambulance looked like, but this was not the time. By the looks of my family, I knew this meant no time to fool around. After the loud sirens came closer to our apartment we put on our masks and my family along with my grandma followed the ambulance with our red Hyundai. 

    We arrived at the hospital. My grandma started to burst in tears because of how much her husband was struggling. She said she had never seen him in this much pain in 50 years of marriage. 

    “You girls stay here while dad and I go and check with the doctor,” my mother said nervously.

    “Ok. We will stay here. Tell us how it goes,” my older sister said as my mom left the room to go to the emergency center where grandpa was. 

    My sister and I were bored. It had been a few hours and we were very confused about what had happened. We were waiting in the hospital hoping mom or dad will give us updates. We were starting to get worried, but we could not enter the room because covid restrictions only allowed 3 people. 

Unfortunately, my sister and I were not part of that three.  I peeked through the glass to take a look at my grandma who was sitting in the chair inside the emergency room. I knew things were not going well by the tears dripping down the side of grandma’s cheeks. I had never seen her cry in my 14 years of life. With the loud noises of ambulances and busy doctors I managed to hear dad talk to the doctor.