Act 1 Scene 1
Scene cards:
- Place card: “Wuhan,China,2020”
- Challenge card: “A member of your family gets infected with the virus”
- Success card: “Your family member has been sent to hospital”
- Setback card: “The whole family feel hopeless”
Character Bonds
Ethan (Ling) played their Strength card “Brave” and wrote:
January 23rd 2020
Dear Diary,
Even as young as I am, which is four years old, I can understand how my family is feeling; I’m feeling it too.
Our mother had recently been to the animal market, where the coronavirus started. You have no idea just how petrified I am: I wasn’t even born that long ago! Sometimes when I am having a stroll around our gloomy house, I glimpse dad, Max, who is our dog, and everyone just walking in circles, shaking their heads in disbelief. At least we’re all hopeful about if she recovers: without a little hope, nothing can happen!
There is good news and bad news: fortunately, the current death rate is incredibly minute, even with unreliable figures – a mere one per cent or so! Besides, she may even not have the virus. On the other hand, public transport has shut down; Mother wouldn’t be able to come back home, even if she managed to survive or test results showed negative. Fourteen days until she comes home… that seems so far away!
One night, as we were having breakfast, that consisted of some cereal without milk (the coronavirus is thought to have originated from animals) I caught something daddy was reading aloud in the news. He then discussed it with Lizzy, who was my sister, in the garden.
The news read the following: “WUHAN TO LOCKDOWN BECAUSE OF COVID-19 (NOVEL CORONAVIRUS)” My heart was pounding against my chest. Were we going to be trapped forever?
Ethan (Ling) drew the Flaw card “Insecure.”
Marcus (Xiaobai) played their Flaw card “Lonely” and wrote:
January 24rd 2020
Dear diary,
I stayed awake the whole night. I tried to force myself to at least close my eyes for a while, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t help thinking about all the possibilities. What if this and what if that?
Bethy, my dear wife, was admitted to hospital yesterday. Although we are still waiting for the test results to be returned, although I still hope for the best, it is more and more likely that she’s contracted the virus. Her symptoms were so typical – coughing, fever, tiredness, shortness of breath and sore throat, muscle ache, headache. These might occur to anyone who’s caught a flu, but she’s been to the wet market and her best friend who accompanied her also developed the same symptoms.
As soon as dawn has drawn, I crawled out of bed and started my day. I have to stay strong. I put on my mask and gloves, rummaged the cupboard and found two bottles and disinfectant. I sprayed all the surfaces I could possibly see and touch before I washed 5 loads of all our coats, pants, sweaters and underwear. We also need to maintain our nutrition level, so I planned and prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner for me and Lizzie and Ethan. Oh, let’s not forget Max and his bony snacks! Max, I am afraid I cannot take you out for quite a few days from now on. Please don’t go bonkers, at least not in the recent couple of days.
When everybody woke up and had breakfast, I looked out the window, the streets were so barren, the number of people on the people on the streets is scanty and the roads look so abandoned. My heart is almost as cold as metal. Are you ok, Bethy? I really hope I could come and take care of you! I really hope you could stand beside me during this storm.
I was pulled out from our own world by a sharp thrill of doorbell. Two men with overall protective suit appeared at the door. “We come to inform you that your wife Bethy has been confirmed to have the virus. Now all of you have to be tested.”
“Oh, no, mum!” burst Lizzie! “Mama, mama! I want you!” cried Ethan. Max hid behind the bin, staring at the strangers at the door. I picked Ethan up and comforted him and calmed him down before a needle pinched the inner side of our elbow followed by a scream from Ethan AND Lizzie.
“You should not leave your home before the test results are returned.” was the last words from the two strangers. Now what?
Marcus (Xiaobai) drew the Strength card “Patient.”
Max (Yao) played their Flaw card “Clumsy” and the scene’s Setback card, “The whole family feel hopeless,” and wrote:
Dear, Woof Diary, 1/24/ Woof 2020
I feel very angry, today, perhaps because of Marcus, mainly. He is supposed to walk me every day, but he didn’t do it today! Now serves him right if I have to go in the house! The whole family is probably very miserable. I heard that mom was in the hospital. Hey, what’s a hospital anyway? I heard it was a place where people got treated, so is it like a doggy suite? If yes, I’d love to go! I bet there’s bones, and snacks, and meat, and walks, and toys, and a pool, and a massaging center, and a spa, and a …Well, I guess that’s not the case. Why would the family be so sad if mom was swimming right now? Sigh. I wish everything was back to normal. Then I would get to watch TV with brother, and I would get to see those dog food commercials again! Pant, Pant. Oh, and also, I keep bumping into things. I keep getting into chairs and tables. Every now and then I bump into a human leg.
Well, at least I still have food. The family doesn’t have a lot. A lot of stuff use diary, so they usually just eat cereal. Oh, and I just have cereal. But I have never even tasted cereal before! Oh, it was so sweet. I hope I will never have to eat dog food again! Today, I discovered what a “dumpling” meant. I just saw a weird shape of white. Brother gave me one of his, and I was surprised to learn that there was something inside the white! Something chewy and soft and sweet. I soon understood what a “marshmallow” was. It was the thing I had tasted! Dad said that because we couldn’t buy meat, he decided to mash marshmallows and put the mash in dumplings. So much for creative cooking.
Well, bye Diary. I am ready for a nice, long nap.
Act 2 Scene 1
Scene cards:
- Place card: “Tongji Hospital, Wuhan”
- Challenge card: “The government decide to shut down the whole city”
- Success card: “Your family member is getting better”
- Setback card: “Your family member is getting worse”
Marcus (Xiaobai) played their Strength card “Patient” and wrote:
January 26th 2020
Dear Diary,
Everything has been locked down. No public transportation, no civil services, no school, no work, no Bethy. I have been talking to her on the phone every day. Her voice sounded weak and she still has fever. But her temperature does not climb any further and it sways from 38 to 39 between morning and afternoon. She also told me that she was lucky to be admitted as so many more people were waiting in the lobby or outside the hospital now to be tested or treated, but they have already run out beds, test kits and doctors and nurses. Her best friend who is currently lying beside her also stabilises and they speak to each other, although quite hard, to cheer the other part up. I felt a bit reassured.
Back to the family, Ethan and Lizzie stopped arguing and fighting. They probably also sensed the tension and decided not to add more to it. Most of the time, Lizzie played on her iPad and Ethan played with his Lego bricks. Max seemed extremely melancholy though because Bethy was gone. They two used to be the best buddies. Bethy took Max for a walk twice a day. She fed him, bathe him, combed him, and sometimes Max stayed in our bedroom at the end of our bed if he was upset or scared. Every day when Bethy was off work, Max was the first one to greet her at the door. Every time when Bethy lies down on the couch, Max would be the first one to curl beside her. The day Bethy came back from the wet market, she bought Max a special treat – mixed fish bones with fish liver oil. It was supposed to make Max fitter, but Max yucked at that! I really felt sorry for Max. He must have been missing Bethy an awful lot!
I wish I could go and visit Bethy with the kids and Max. I wish I could go to Tongji Hospital, but we really have to be patient. 14 days and then we would be able to go out if we turned out to be fine. No, actually only 13 days to go! Fingers crossed!
Marcus (Xiaobai) drew the Strength card “Responsible.”
Max (Yao) drew the Strength card “Patient.”
Max (Yao) played their Strength card “Patient” and wrote:
Woof Diary, 1/29/20
I miss Mom. So many days have gone by since the inspection. The government has shut down the whole city, and no cars or subways can be heard. Nothing. The world is in complete silence. All the stores have shut down. However, Marcus thought ahead. He bought dozens of canned food, and he even had five gallons of water stored. We are going to survive.
The whole family misses Mom. Me, I miss her too, but not that much. I know that I just have to wait ten days before we get the test results. Oh, I can wait. Time goes by so quickly! Usually, I just sit there, watching Lizzie play Fortnite nonstop. I wonder if a dog was a character. Lizzie’s pretty good, mainly because she has three legendary weapons. I also watch how Lizzie sometimes dances after a kill. It looks like rock and roll style. I like it. Then, Lizzie tells me how many kills she had. I was a bit sleepy, but I thought I heard 9. Or, I just take a nap. Well at least school shut down, says Lizzie. What is a school? I’ll have to look for more clues!
We eat instant food like, every day? Now, if I have to go for a walk, I go through trapdoor that Marcus installed. I’ve never had so much freedom in my life! However, yesterday, I learned what an “electric fence” was. I learned it the hard way when I got zapped. I like watching cartoons with brother. Cartoons are so colorful and they are funny too. I like them very much. Unlike the horror movies sister watches. I don’t like them at all. There was one called “The Mystery of the Man With The Knife.” It was almost all black, and it was very scary. There was a man holding a knife and he was called a murderer. I did not like it. I had trouble going to sleep.
Max (Yao) drew the Strength card “Intelligent.”
Ethan (Ling) played their Flaw card “Lonely” and wrote:
30th of January goo goo ga ga 2020
Dear goo-goo Diary,
Nobody was talking to each other now, and even Lizzie and I have stopped arguing! Everybody seemed to be worlds apart, and I didn’t know what to do: even my Lego bricks had lost its fun.
However, I have tried a new hobby, which daddy approves of teaching Max new human-daily-life things. It may seem tedious, but everything is amusing when Max the dog is around! Even so, he may become grumpy sometimes.
Life, in general, has entered a new dimension for all of us: there was no Becky for anyone to love or care for, and a new nightmare of thought has entered our minds: would she even survive?
We all tried to ignore the fact that mummy might not come back; even Max sensed our fear and attempted to make us all laugh – which he did flawlessly. Sometimes, I feel like Max is even more human than some brutal people, who don’t even seem human at all!
In addition to this, even the television seemed to put up all of the most satisfying and funniest shows as to cheer us all up, as well as daily reports on how to protect yourself from the coronavirus and so forth.
As for me, I like to remind myself that even if Mummy dies, I’m very fortunate to still have daddy, Lizzie and Max – it keeps me sane. One the other hand, I feel like I am going insane because nobody wants to play with me anymore; what should I do?
We have received a report from the Tongji Hospital, which is where Mummy is being attended to, that she is showing particularly mild symptoms of the novel coronavirus, that is great news for us: there’s more hope that she will come back home in good shape and health.
Meanwhile, Lizzie is just addicted to her game, that is called Fortnite; I frankly do not see what is so exciting about killing people and then dancing on them – that is just rude! Max has been more attentive to this mess of a game; will he become addicted as well?
On the other hand, daddy, who’s called Marcus, self-isolated himself from us – he has been acting as if we have the coronavirus ourselves! Most of the time, he keeps to himself within his bedroom; you can hear him sobbing and muttering to himself very vaguely.
Ethan (Ling) wrote a Flashback, playing their Bond card “Family Members3”:
Max, who is our goo goo dog, and I like to spend time together: on a normal daily basis, I would roll and around and play with him for the majority of the day. Daddy had bought him around a day or so after I was born – it was to celebrate my goo-goo-ga-ga birth.
He’s a particularly playful dog, especially with the entire family. However, every so often, he would start growling at Daddy; this was a sign that one of his tempers would start.
Lizzie was also very fond of him, and still is today! Even so, the coronavirus has been on her mind recently, so she has been paying less attention to Max. Now as I think about it, they do still spend time playing and watching that absurd monstrosity of a game. Oh well – at least they’re both having fun!
Over the four years of my entire life, I feel like Max is much more than a pet dog: he feels like another sibling, or even another mother or father!
Act 3 Scene 1
Scene cards:
- Place card: “Your apartment in Wuhan city”
- Challenge card: “Your family is running low on food and face mask”
- Success card: “Your family member manage to restore food and face mask supply”
- Setback card: “with food and face mask shortage you feel hopeless”
Max (Yao) played their Strength card “Intelligent” and wrote:
Dear Woof Diary, I don’t know the date
After probably a month, our food supplies have finally started going down. I mean, that’s not a good thing, but IT’S TIME FOR MY LUNCH!!! I think Marcus must have heard that. Well, gotta run! MARCUS IT’S LUNCHTIME!! WHERE’S MY FOOD?!!
…Ah, so much better. I kept annoying Marcus until he threw me some doggie biscuits. But I’m very smart! I opened the zip-lock bag that held my treats, and then gobbled them all. Well, it’s not my fault! Who eats three doggie biscuits for lunch? Oh, a squirrel, I see a squirrel! Ah, it’s right over there! I want to chase that squirrel!
…
Welcome back to the Max show again, ladies and gents! Today, we’re going to explore…
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF HOUSE PETS!!!First, the dog silently steps toward the innocent cat, intending on destroying the soul of the cat. The cat is unaware, but the dog silently moves. On the verge of pouncing, the dog suddenly stops. The cat has reached out a paw, and extended a claw. The dog yelps for its own safety, and runs speedily towards its safe haven. Thank you, and… Oh! Sorry to interrupt this important show…YAWN…but my visceral feelings tell me that I need a nice nap. Bye. YAWN…YAWN…ZZZZZZ…
Oh hello, I just woke up! It is right now hmm… never mind, I can’t read time. All I can say is that the big hand is at the twelve and the little hand is at the seven, and it reads a.m. This morning, Marcus did not have enough food to feed me! But Lizzie and Ethan got fed! That tells me that… Ugh…I need another nap.
Well, I have woken up…again. All I can say is that dogs are geniuses. Why? Because they came up with the idea for naps. And I’m a dog! Yay! I’m a genius! All that enthusiasm has worn me out. I think I’ll either watch Lizzie play Fortnite or just take a nap. Wait…YAWN..YAWN…yep, nap’s fine! ZZZZ…
Ethan (Ling) drew the Bond card “Family Members12,”,and the Strength card “Lucky.”
Ethan (Ling) played their Strength card “Lucky” and wrote:
Goo goo date: I can’t remember in my miniature head.
Dear goo goo ga ga Diary,
It’s seemed like an eternity since I last wrote; you must have been bored because of that, diary!
Everything has taken up to new habits: Marcus prefers reading books over the newspaper; Lizzy… she is still addicted to her catastrophic game; Max enjoys chasing animals (he even has his little show for it!) and sleeping, and for me… I… I don’t know: I just do random things, like playing with Lego, having meals, chatting, sucking my thumb and all of the things that makes me a normal person.
However, we have been savaging around the house for supplies, which we seemed to have completely run out of. Even though we don’t go out for a walk or to meet anyone else anymore, we have eaten through all of our face masks; we even had fifty for each person to begin with! Since the city locked down ages ago, there is nobody we can buy a mask from. If I had to pick which items were the most useful in this particular epidemic, I would say food and face masks; both of which we had a shortage of. Will we be doomed forever in our memory-full home?
I can hear lots of barking… oh wait, that’s Max. Max has been particularly hyper recently; normally this is another sign of his anger, but he has been hyper very often in the past few days. We have no explanation, but the fact that he wants his food. Even after we explained to him the panic we were in, he consistently barked and barked away like a mad-dog.
After lunch, I whipped up a strange scent; it seemed to be coming from the attic. It smelt very familiar, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. After all, Max was the master of identifying scents – not me!
I fetched our beloved dog, who traced the smell up to just below the attic; at least I was close! We found some hidden face masks and tomatoes. What could this mean? Did Mummy or someone else prepare for the virus in advance? Questions zoomed around my minute head – the only way to get rid of them was to question Daddy.
Ethan (Ling) drew the Strength card “Observant.”
Marcus (Xiaobai) played their Strength card “Responsible” and the scene’s Success card, “Your family member manage to restore food and face mask supply,” and wrote:
Dear Diary,
Bethy still talks to me every day. I think her fever is better now, a mere 38 degrees or so and her throat sounds a bit better. I hope she will get better soon. The streets are still empty with occasional passing of cars and trucks. If you once saw how many people there were in Wuhan a short while ago, you would be flabbergasted at how many people there are now. Let us all hope this will end up well.
Only 1 day until our test results come back on the virus, and I have both my fingers and toes crossed. We lived on one small bag of rice and one cabbage for four days. I didn’t know how we survived. Every day I could only cook some thin porridge with 2 cabbage leaves with a bit salt and that was it. There was one packet of biscuits, from which Ethan and Lizzie had to share one per day. Max, oh, poor Max! He just took naps after naps, only having food in his dream. As for me, I reduced my daily intake to one meal per day. I kept drinking a lot of tea with sugar to and save as much food for the rest of the family.
I was about to go to supermarket in case we starved ourselves to death before the virus did. It was of high risk as there were no more face masks left. I was thinking making one myself using tapes and cloth. It would be better than nothing, but still, I felt less prepared and protected. But then Max started barking, just barking like mad. I was too weak to check on him and Ethan was the first to follow up. Then Max was just trying to stand up on his hind legs and his nose at the ceiling. This could only mean one thing, that there was something, something in the attic. I stood up and headed to the ladder that led to the attic, which after a lot of ransacking and rummaging, we found the emergency supplies of tomatoes and face masks. Had Bethy prepared this and had she hoarded the supplies before she left for the hospital? Why didn’t she tell me the whole time? No, it couldn’t be her. But then who?
No time to solve this mysterious case. I need to eat something, IMMEDIATELY! What would be the result tomorrow? Let’s see!
Epilogue
Marcus (Xiaobai) drew the Strength card “Witty.”
Marcus (Xiaobai) played their Strength card “Witty” and the scene’s undefined card, “undefined.” The epilogue begins with the game’s Ending card, “The war against the virus has finally ended.” They wrote:
12th March 2020
Dear Diary,
Now I am sitting at home with Bethy and the children around the dinner table, and yes, of course we must not forget Max. On the table, there are Bethy’s favourite roast ducks, Ethan’s favourite fried chicken, Lizzie’s fish ball soup with bamboo shoots and my favourite marshmallow dumplings. Max is sitting beside us at his own bowl, gnawing a giant bone with lots of meat on it. Of course, he was also given the infamous marshmallow dumplings as that’s his second-best food at the moment. We are chatting, laughing, telling jokes, teasing each other, having staring competition and so on. Bethy is back, health is back, normal life is back, and I never feel so contented and nothing is going to exchange any of these from me.
The TV is on and we occasionally have a glance. In China the war of the virus has ended but the Europeans and the whole world aren’t so lucky: the pandemic has hit many places and very severely, just as it did to Wuhan 2 months ago. I would suggest the people anywhere else to take precautions and make preparations.
The advice I would give them are:
- Try to get or make your face masks, gloves, hand sanitisers, disinfectants;
- Store a decent amount of food and water to sustain for at least a month;
- Wash your hands as often and thorough as you can (sing Happy Birthday twice if you don’t know how long it should be);
- The most important thing is to be alerted but optimistic.
- Be supportive and strong in case one or more family members are infected.
- Rest more and be hopeful if you are infected yourself.
Let’s have a fresh start from the beginning and hope that this pandemic will never occur again. Wait, but who hoarded the food or masks in our attic? There are always things I cannot explain. But from now on, I will make sure there will always be tins and cans and other supplies up there.
Max (Yao) drew the Strength card “Lucky.”
Max (Yao) played their Strength card “Lucky” and wrote:
Dear Dairy, 3/12/20
The war against the virus in Wuhan has finally ended. Everything is back to normal, and I feel very lucky indeed. Bethy is back, and I am right now eating a huge bone. I cannot remember when I before had had so much meat. We are sitting around the table, all laughing and talking. I look at them, and I think how long before we had done that. Two months ago, maybe, when the virus all started. Now, I am thankful for everything. I have food and shelter, and also a nice bed for naps. Oh, and also squirrels to chase. I feel that it is time for my dessert. Oh, my! My dessert! Bethy bought me cheesecake! Me! Me! I want cake! There it goes! It’s on my plate! UM! NUM! Gnarf! Gnarf! That cake was delicious.As for the tomatoes, we might never know what happened to them. We ate all of them, but how did they get there in the first place? We might never know, but I am so smart as to hide all of my dog snacks in the attic. The attic, a fine place to hide things. Whenever I need food, I go up to the attic and stuff myself with biscuits.
Well, I guess life is back to normal. Ethan can go outside, and Marcus took down the electric fence. We have sufficient food every night, and Lizzie is still playing the game. I like to watch. Or take a nap. Or…I NEED A BONE! THIS IS CODE RED! I NEED A BONE!
Everybody is happier, and the whole family feels lucky to have Bethy back. We all missed her laughter and smile, and Lizzie is going back to sixth grade. Ethan is starting preschool, and I am starting dog camp. No, not kidding. Marcus signed me up at this dog camp, where he said there were going to be treats and fun activities. But they probably just want to get rid of me. Well, I just hope there will not be another virus.
Ethan (Ling) played their Strength card “Observant” and wrote:
Goo goo ga ga date, but daddy and Max think it was 12th of March yesterday.
Dear Diary,
The normally panic-filled house was vacant and the atmosphere, which was in the house, was quiet. Everybody apart from me had gone outside to attempt another new hobby: Max is obsessed with eating – quite frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t gained a lot of weight yet – and he has started to go to a camp specially made for dogs; mummy enjoys shopping and she has been preparing us for another epidemic by purchasing more supplies; daddy has become seriously involved with children’s health, for some strange reason, and me… I’m just… I’m still Ethan the baby – nothing special.
After lunch, I noticed a minute piece of card, which was lying behind the crates where the tomatoes where. It read, “Just in case” in big, bold letters. The handwritten was unmistakably familiar, and only one person in the entire world could possess such a loopy type: grandmother.
Everything seemed to fit into place since grandma was always aware and predicting whether something bad would happen. Therefore, it would make sense if she was trying to stock up on food: that’s the type of thing she would do.
I told everyone about it in the living room, and they were all genuinely startled: grandma was on the bottom of their thoughts, and the information came so suddenly. I had brought it with my mouth so that they could see the evidence. It was a little bit damp, sure, I’ll give you that, but the writing was still legible.
“Let’s call grandma,” mummy concluded, “and thank her for absolutely everything she had ever done for us.” Grandma, who was pleasantly surprised that we had found out her secret stash of tomatoes’ owner, invited us to her home for a delightful, festive and soothing meal, as an entire family.
We contacted basically about everyone we could reach, and, fortunately, everybody could come. Max managed to fit about a bit of everything into his greedy mouth, causing everyone to chortle as we chatted and ate. Also, our dog, who everyone was very fond of, learnt many different types of food.
Before, nothing seemed to be going accordingly; now, however, China was one of the safest places you could go! China eventually found a vaccine and medicine, that was introduced to the entire world – both of planet Earth and the world of history. What could go wrong now?
Everyone was exuberated at the fact that everybody could be saved, and we all celebrated for what seemed ages. I wondered, “What would have happened if mummy never got better, or I never found those tomatoes?”