Chapter 13: A Very Important Announcement

Although it was a cold start to the day, the sun was shining on this, the first day of Spring. The number of Covid cases recorded was going down and there was talk of the Premier revealing a plan on Sunday, for our way out of lock-down. As Hibiscus and Dovic went to zoom with the class, it seemed that there was an air of hope, except when it came to the internet. When Hibiscus tried to mark the roll during zoom, she heard a student or two say that her picture was frozen, but they could still hear her. Suddenly the faces of children were gone, and Hibiscus felt she’d been launched off into cyber space and was floating around, doing the moon walk, while waiting to reconnect to her class. When she finally came back, the zoom session was abuzz with the sound of children talking and they told Hibiscus they were just waiting for her until a quarter to and then if she hadn’t shown up by then, they were going to go and do the work. She went through a few examples of what to do, answered their questions and they left to complete the task offline, before coming back for the next period.

During the day Lulu tried to teach Ellie how to dance. She showed her how to do a pirouette and Ellie tried to copy her. Her first two tries didn’t work at all, and Lulu patiently demonstrated again. She even brought Richo over to show Ellie, then Ronnie, and even Bruiser, but no matter how hard she tried, Ellie couldn’t do it. Her trunk got in the way, pulling her forward and her floppy ears couldn’t decide whether to flap out or stay close to her head. Lulu tried to show her the arabesque position but that seemed even more difficult and Ellie crumpled to the floor and burst into tears. “I just can’t do it!” she sobbed, “I’m hopeless. I can’t do anything right.”

Gazza happened to be walking past at this point and stopped, “Oh boy, oh boy” he responded and sat down next to Ellie. “You’re not hopeless, Ellie. Our elephant bodies aren’t made for ballet positions and dances. Just like a wombat can’t fly, a kangaroo can’t dig and an emu can’t climb, we can’t dance like that.” She sniffed and said, “But I’m not good at anything!” He reminded her how just the other day, they had pulled the wooden bridge off Ronnie and saved his life and he told her how she always had the right words to say to cheer others up. She smiled at his words and felt much better. When Ronnie came spinning past them, she put out her trunk and gave him an extra spin to make him go faster. “Wheeeeee” he sang out and Gazza chuckled, “Oh boy, oh boy. That worked, Ellie!” and she laughed.

After school, Hibiscus approached the clan and told them she had a Very Important Announcement to make. They all stopped what they were doing and gathered on the couch wondering what was going to happen. Dovic was apprehensive and sat near The Old Wise One. Even Ronnie had stopped spinning around and doing somersaults. Lulu looked at all their faces and realised it must be serious, so she stopped her dancing and waited impatiently as she was in the middle of a new routine. Hibiscus looked at them kindly and spoke gently, reminding them of how people in the Greater Melbourne area and a few other places, were in Stage 4 lockdown.

“This means,” she went on, “They can only get 1 hour of exercise per day outside their home, only one person can do the shopping for essential goods and you can not go and visit anyone or have anyone come to your house. You are not allowed to go further than 5 kilometres from your home and you must wear face masks…. I know you all know this and up until now, it hasn’t affected you but it has affected all of the people around you; my family, my friends and my students. Everyone. Some people are living by themselves and working from home and they are very lonely.” She paused and looked at the clan before taking a deep breath and going on to explain further. “I have decided that you are all going to follow the same restrictions for a week only. I want you to be able to show empathy to others and understand how it can change how you feel, even about the day.”

They all had many questions, but they could see how it might help them to understand what it means to be in lockdown. They could go out into the backyard at different times, and they’d live in different parts of the house, so would have to find a way of communicating with those not in their room. To decide who was going to be their friend for the week, they drew names out of the hat. As Dovic would still be going to school with Hibiscus, he got to draw first. He pulled out the name and read it, “Gazza”. “Oh boy, oh boy” replied Gazza and both Ellie and Lulu were disappointed. As the names were read out, they each moved to their friend and began planning how they’d stay in touch with the others. They would use face time and write notes throughout each day.

Suddenly Ellie called out, “But wait! It’s Gazza’s birthday on Saturday!! Are we going to have a party for him? And give him presents? How can we do that if we’re in lockdown?” Gazza looked up and tried to smile bravely but it was clear he was disappointed. Hibiscus looked at Gazza gently and said, “We can still celebrate… It just won’t look like how we imagined. Many of my students, friends and family, have had birthdays and have missed out on friends coming over.” She could see him holding back the tears and quickly added, “We’ll have a big party when all this is over!” and as she smiled at him, he tried to smile back.

Tumbarumba tried to inject enthusiasm back into the group before they all went their separate ways,  “It’s only a week” said Tumbarumba, “We can do it!” and they all put their hands into a circle together and cheered out, “Hibiscus clan!” and scurried off to their rooms with their friends.

Gazza and Dovic talked about the situation, Gazza’s birthday and began to make plans for the rest of the week. Suddenly they heard the signal they were being face timed and turned it on to see Lulu. “Guess what?” she said and when Dovic went to speak, she spoke again, “You’re muted. I can’t hear you.” He pressed the button and they continued their conversation. Lulu was working on a new routine with Richo although she was finding it hard to include the football into the dance and complained that he only wanted to dance to the Tigers theme song. Dovic and Gazza told her they were thinking of having a theme party once the restrictions were over and Dovic was going to start up a Gratitude Journal. When he explained it, Lulu said, “Great idea. I think I’ll do that too.” Lulu talked more about her new dance until she heard the Tigers theme song in the background and said she had to go.  

After the call, Dovic and Gazza played with Lego until they couldn’t think of anything more to build. Later, as Dovic wrote in his Gratitude Journal for the first time, he decided that these restrictions might not be so bad after all. He looked forward to spending time with Gazza and he knew he’d still get to visit the class with Hibiscus. He put down his pencil and was thankful that he had so many good friends and that even though he couldn’t spend time with them right now, they would all be there when this was over.