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3AM - January 20th  *Cell Phone Rings*  Who the hell could this be at 3am? She thinks.  She grabbed her phone and slipped out into the hallway. It was actually quite the chilly morning and Brooke wished she had grabbed her comfy, big gray knit sweater from the end of her bed, on the blanket chest. She really did not want to wake her 3 sleeping children though. Groggy and a little irritated, she answered the phone in the hallway just passed the bedrooms.  “Hello?!” Brooke breathed. Damnit, she missed the call. The last time she received an early morning call was when her Nanna had passed away. So with a chest full of dread, she headed downstairs to her office to call the number back. She plopped in her refurbished office chair , spun around and hit the number on her phone. Two rings in and a female voice answered. “Hey Brooke, it’s Treni. I’m sorry I called you so early, I didn’t realize the time difference.” -Treni is a friend that Brooke met in high school. They live completely separate lives and quite frankly, Brooke was surprised she had called at all. Let alone before the sun came up. “Oh. Hey Tren. Odd time for a call. Is everything okay? What’s up? I feel like we haven't spoken in forever.” “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to explain everything. Since Thanksgiving things have been dull, but now we’ve hit our SHTF moment and I needed to give you and the kids a heads up.”, Treni said. “We’ve got a lot of hits coming out of China right now. The satellite images are insane and the WHO is definitely withholding information.”  Understandably there was silence. “Do you still have your supply closet? Make sure you've got enough N95 masks for you, Mike and the kids. If I know you, you’ve got at least 6 months worth of food stored somewhere in that house on the hill.,” She continued. “Hold on. What are you talking about?” Brooke squeaked out, as she opened her office closet door and visually ran over all of  her food preps. “Of course I have food stores, that’s just good practice, but what do you mean ‘hits out of China’ and N95 masks?” “I’m sorry. I really can’t tell you more. But we made a promise to each other at school and we’ve never reneged. So here I am making this call on an untraceable. Just Google’ Wuhan - Corona’ - It’s more than it seems and be ready. I can tell you a bat did not start this. Listen, I’ll call you later.” Line dead. So for the next 4 hours that's what Brooke did. She Googled and researched. She read a lot of details that she had not yet heard in the news.  ------ 7AM - Breakfast time for the family.  “Mom” said Dean “Mooooommmm” said Karly “Mother” said the oldest, Adelaine “Yes, Yes. Sorry. I’m making eggs and toast and the bacon is in the fryer.” “Smells more like burnt eggs and blackened bacon, but okay” You could practically hear the eye roll in her pre-pre preteen voice. See the twins, Karly & Dean were only 3 years old - So Brooke could block their whining out easily, But Adelaine was 7 going on 23, and she had that sarcastic eye-roll down pat and it drove their mother crazy. Luckily for Adelaine, this morning Mommy’s mind was on all those headlines and articles she read during those wee hours.  -WUHAN SCIENTIST SILENCED. PROFESSOR CHARGED WITH TREASON. BIOTERRORISM SUSPECTED. W.H.O. CONCERNED WITH RAPID SPREAD OF MYSTERY VIRUS. APARTMENT BUILDINGS BEING LOCKED UP TIGHT. CHINA ON LOCKDOWN. MILITARY GAMES 2019- Not to mention the video of people in China being locked into their homes as the police are soldering doors shut. People were screaming and it was, quite frankly, scary as hell. “You alright hun? You seem distracted this morning”, Mike mumbled in between his bites of toast and sips of coffee. Bringing Brooke back to the present moment. “Mmhhmmmm. Yup Yup. Just burning breakfast for ya!” Brooke sing songed.  -------------------- Even though it was a Monday, the kids were off from school for Martin Luther King Jr.  Day. So the morning required a lot of patience as chaos was sprinkled everywhere. By 10:30 Brooke felt absolutely no guilt when she put on Disney Jr. NOW, to keep the kids entertained for a few minutes so she could go about her normal daily routine of required clean up and laundry. Even though, laundry was her arch nemesis and she would have prefered to burn it all. Sort, Wash and Dry. Might as well be Bill Murray’s understudy in a remake of Ground Hogs Day. God this is monotanous, she thought. The Laundry room/mud room was an utter nightmare. Two laundry organizers, three baskets each plus two more laundry bins over flowing next to the washer and dryer unit. Kind of making the whole thing look a little like Chateau de Frontenac.-  Not to mention a not so small pile of assorted family linens that was intruding on the mud room portion of the dual purposed room. Who knew motherhood would be so glorious? In all her glory, Brooke snuck into the garage real quick for a little medical m*******a break time. 11AM -Garage Brooke held the bubbler delicate and firm as she took a long pull. She was admiring the bubbler - tinged deep blue with it’s very detailed, hand-blown glass flowers in shades of blue, green and pink along its slide, resembling a flower bouquet. She exhaled and filled the room with a big, slightly sour, poof of floral aroma. Any THC connoisseur worth his neck, knows that a completely clear blown glass pipe is a pain in the butt to keep clean. This was a good purchase. Beautiful and practical. “Busted!” Mike joked as he walked in through the open garage door, with his signature chuckle, “A little Sofia The First action going on upstairs?” “Heck yeah. They are stir crazy up there and I needed a few minutes.” Long drag and hold. The prescription label says 2-3 pulls, and hold for 30 seconds each. Brooke was only, after all, following instructions. While she took the recommended drags, Brooke watched Mike putter around the garage, moving this and that. She knew he was trying to get to the ‘winter weather’ shelf that they had put together at the end of last summer but she enjoyed watching him ‘put and take’ as Nanna would have said. He really did have a great ass and the way his Henley pulled at his shoulders was usually distraction enough. Not today though. It was time to vent a bit. “Hun, remember my friend from school, Treni ? You met her a few times. She was definitely at our wedding.”  Mike was lifting the rock salt off of the shelf in the garage, getting ready for another ice storm that was due to blow in today according to the news. “Yea, What about her?” Mike responded as he hoisted the rock salt up onto his shoulder. “She called me this morning, like really early. To warn me about this apparent virus that is spreading like wildfire”,  Brooke confided. “Ohhh that’s what that was at 3am? She was definitely high or on some bender. Who the f**k calls someone at 3 am to discuss a virus in China?” “Right? That's what I thought too. But then I started Googling for a little bit and to be honest, I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about it. Things do not seem to add up. It’s sketchy.” “Well, a 3AM phone call will confuse anyone babe and besides what have I told you about late night Googling. You’ll drive yourself crazy.” Mike replied nonchalantly. “ I’m going to salt the driveway and Mr.Palazzo’s driveway. I’ll be back in time for lunch. That Chili you mentioned is still for lunch, right?” “s**t. The Chili!!” and with that Brooke ran back into the house.