Jewel 2

People wailing, sobbing, screaming for mercy and redemption that wouldn't come. Men, women, children dying, citizens with no age limit, from the youngest of the young and oldest of the elderly. Reporters say that it's a terrorist attack that caused this virus to spread. Elderly people said it is a curse, an omen because we lived a life of greed such as in business, trades and advanced technologies. Climate defenders said that it is the weather changes that caused people to get sick and because we lack trees or plants, oxygen gases are limitedly or scarce found in the atmosphere. Or fortune tellers and readers said that it is the universe, the earth telling us to open our third eyes and see the truth, the fact that the world is dying, nature is scabbing and our future turning into some sort of bleak and unsure. Motivation speakers said that we must strive for our purpose and go beyond our present situation to rise above our problems and succeed over the pains and trials of our lives. Some scientists or medical doctors said that the virus mutated, and can easily be caught by anyone. We must take care of our selves and our loves, to take vitamins regularly, exercise and sanitize at home, at the office, everywhere we go. We should refrain from going outside unless necessary and to gather with crowded places. Parties, gatherings, meetings and conferences were strictly prohibited. We are battling a more sophisticated virus that can adapt and multiply enormously and rapidly through human contact, through saliva when we sneeze and in coughing. We must be well aware that the virus can spread though air and can stick or stay in objects, vehicles, furniture, walls, knobs, food or buildings.

Rita is seeing, hearing people crying with nowhere to go or ask for help. She knows for a fact that Covid hit the U.S. like a storm and the country didn't know what to do until the vaccines were made and aided people to be protected from the pandemic widespread.

It's weird but not uncommon to hear winds howling. But it's been in several months that I have heard these eerie sounds that caused by the gush and hush of wind blowing from the east, south, west and the north, Rita thought while observing on the ship screen on the horrifying events happening now in the year 2020. It's the month of March, when the pandemic hit Asia and many other countries untl the year 2021.

Jewel wrote in her notes the things and the news they have been listening into now that they are in the year where many died and many struggled to come by, live by even if jobs were lost and people were scared of what the future hold for them. They stayed inside the ship thought there were several men and women trying to check them out, policing what they are doing near the hospital and what they are intending to do in a place like New York City. Jewel prepared both of their meals and it's been three days now, but they still couldn't find anything to know what might have caused the outbreak. The Chinese doctor who discovered the virus died right after catching it and since they said that it came from an infected bat eaten by a customer in a market there. Still it's something we must need to learn from, but how and what can we do now that it already spread all through-out the globe and with regards to deaths, we are still counting. Rita checked the weather patterns, in the states it's either too cold or too icy. In Asia it's rather too hot or cold early mornings or evenings, then hot during the days and afternoons. Climate changes are unstable, climate shifts didn't have any patterns but it changes even after 30 minutes though that is science for you, it's still unresolved until now. I once heard

from a friend of mine that Covid might have been spread through the internet or through videos watched or heard by the masses. It is unbelievable but couldn't be impossible taking how the virus can spread from one country to another until it penetrated the whole world, an attack is an understatement, it can definitely be possible that the world was plagued by a treacherous an enemy and it isn't even alive or even human because it attacks the immune system. It can be charted in every history books as the greatest terrorist attack what better challenge is there than attacking the human body, far more his/her immunity? It is genius, not that easy to do and have been studied on for decades and decades until they perfected the virus to really withstand change, medicines or vaccines and evolve just like humans and better yet, change, just as bodies change, grow and develop. These virus are better because it can mutate and multiply faster than humans can regenerate or even replicate their tissues, bloods and grow or regrow parts of its body inside and out. Yet, Rita saw a fluke, a loophole in this experiment. Since they are battling against time and they only have two days to figure out about the virus. She decided to advise Jewel to take a look on the virus sample. Jewel found out that, the person who gets sick due to Covid can build immunity to fight it. With others it can build inside a person's body, strength, intelligence and beauty. But the person who has it and couldn't handle it could lose his or her life because of it too. These are what I have discovered about the virus. However, I am not of this time, so how can I prove the theory but to check after a few years if the vaccines really worked. It didn't, Rita thought. The vaccines merely aided in boosting a person's immunity towards the virus but it didn't kill it. People here tried to prevent it from spreading by not going outside or in public places and hindering social gatherings and physical contacts with people. Yet, it only hindered the quick spread but the virus still continued to raise havoc in this year until 2021. However, I managed to see that a possibility of miracle can happen when people in this era try to battle the virus through positivity, happiness and calmness. Taking care of their bodied and souls are the best way to defeat an enemy that eats away their hope or crush their dreams and good health into pieces. I saw a light and a way to end this pandemic. It is by thinking and believing that they can make it out alive from here or stay stuck in here forever. Free yourselves of the past and the illness. Think of this pandemic as a learning experience to care for our nature, trees or plants more, enhance body health better and protect ourselves from greed and selfishness but instead share our food to those in need, shelter the homeless and love every one equally with no class, gender, religion nor colour to distinguish a person by. Let's start from changing the "self" then let others see the beauty of goodness in "you". See if this would work, then if it isn't still going to work, then all must be too late.

Rita, its' time!, Jewel whispered in her ear and Rita jotted some last minute notes, and smiled nodding, gesturing to Jewel, it's alright to go back in the future. I hope we could do something for the past now that they still keep on believing that the vaccine can really help save them. It is the mind, the faith, the hope and the fear that there is someone greater than us in the world. Whoever you might call him, a god or a high being, he is definitely, God. The Creator, Maker and the true Master of the universe. I didn't believe it until now, Rita explained and doodled on her notepad her findings about the pandemic. " If we can no longer explain and resolve the issue or problem then it must be God's way of saying, "trust me and I'll do the rest. Tell me what is burdening you and I'll give you rest. My yoke is easy, my burden light. Give me your troubles and I will lighten the load for you. For I carried the cross to

save you and no one or nothing can separate me from you, not even the heavens nor the earth. Not even hell or hardened hearts," Rita heard her mother sing to her once again, while travelling back through time and the future. " I cast all my cares upon You. I lay all of my burdens down out your feet. And every time I don't know what to do, I cast all my cares upon you."

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I as an author of this novel also had the same experience as Rita's. My aunt used to sing this song to my daughter before and it stuck to my mind always. When I was serving at a Lay Community in my teen age years when I thought I'd be a nun, this song is what I always wanted to hear from the students of the school my community's house stood beside from. I love It there and have found my being in love with Jesus is all that I could ever wished for to spend my life always at his side. But it turned out that I would become a mom instead of a nun. Yet in my heart, I always love Him and now that I have the chance to say it so. I want all of you to know that this pandemic is a wake-up call for us. We must believe that all things are possible if we only trust, and change for, Jesus. We will prevail, good and faith will win against any problem or a virus. We must not lose hope that Jesus can and will save us. We wander, we waver in disbelief but fear not, Jesus is here to save us. Maybe he already is for we don't really know what lies ahead in the future. This is a fiction novel. Not all of it is true but not all of it unreal too. We must believe only one thing, that, God is a merciful and loving god. He never wavers nor changes but continues to love and nurture us. We may not understand Him but his ways is better than ours. Sometimes I too, question Him. Yet I can only hear him say, "this is how I treat my friends". And only remembering the echoed reply of a Saint responding to Him when she mumbled why God is letting her walk through a rocky path to reach the monastery she needed to go to. "No wonder you have few."

Funny, but, true. We sometimes complain and stumble at the issue or problem first than seeing past the hardship, the greater rewards that await us overcoming it.

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