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The alarm has sounded half an hour earlier than usual. And that the farewell last night ended very late , after 3.00 in the morning, with Ismael Vasallo, singer and nursing assistant, playing Laura Pausini and Pablo Alborán. A final and refined gift before departure. Today I wanted to get up before anyone else to embrace the silence through the halls of the 17th floor. Enjoy the solitude a few minutes before the bustle of goodbye interrupted this magical moment. Enter the living room, close your eyes and remember the best moments of these 14 days of quarantine: laughter, jokes, chess games, the unsolved mystery of who leaves the banana peels on the table ... Bad memories stay in the privacy of each room.
It is something curious human perception. Every day praying that time passes quickly to get out of here and, suddenly, when that long-awaited moment arrives, one feels sorry for leaving. For leaving the family of this fascinating health experiment. On the night of January 31, 21 people entered the Gómez Ulla Hospital to spend 24 hours together for two weeks. Most of us didn't know anything. We didn't even have many things in common except the most important of all: to have come out of the lock of Wuhan's coronavirus. An experience too strong and intense that makes the loose verses of this adventure come together creating a perfect and unbreakable sandwich.
From my window, as the fog gives Carabanchel a break, a crowd of journalists and cameras can be seen ready to leave the hospital. Another strange sensation: that of a pen that should be down there but that glimpses the scene from the 17th floor as another repatriate. Although the security of Gómez Ulla has prepared the exit well to prevent anyone who does not want to go out on television has an alternative escape route to the main door. Some go to the airport, others to the Atocha station and a few of us stay in Madrid.
Since last night doctors, nurses, assistants and other employees of Gómez Ulla go without a mask. It is curious, because during these two weeks we have shared with them long days of talks and crossings in the halls, but so far we did not really put on them. They have made it very easy for us. Even on their faces you can see a glimmer of sorrow for the closing of this adventure. After all, this has been a new experience for everyone. General Fernández, the director of the hospital, said it last night: «For us it has been a study of how 21 people behave when they are locked together for so long, dragging such an agonizing situation behind them».
Farewell hugs are deep. "See you in Wuhan," is the most repeated phrase, although none of us know when it can be fulfilled. Little by little, the 17th floor empties. At noon there is a press conference. The two journalists in the quarantine we get into the habit and the notebook , and we go down to listen to Fernando Simón, director of the Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health. The face of the head of press of the Ministry when we say that we want to go, as journalists, is a poem: «Please, if your colleagues discover you they will pounce on you».
They did not. We are not that important. The protagonists of the press conference were two friends who have been our best caregivers: María Vicenta García, head of the Preventive Medicine Service, and Pilar Cadenas, Nursing supervisor. "They arrived healthy and left healthy," Pilar insisted. «I would ask that when these people return to their homes, that their neighbors, family and friends embrace them», continued María Vicenta. Afterwards, two traveling companions, Pedro and Óliver, were placed in front of the microphones, who thanked the hospital staff for the treatment received.
The truth is that everything has been quite rare. How to be in a cloud. Leave the 17th floor at once, from the comfort shelter for too many days. Bumping into journalists. Hug my mother in the hospital hall. Step on the street. Feel the fresh air hitting your face. And that little feeling of missing all the quarantine partners that is increasing. And I haven't even left the hospital premises yet.
It has been fascinating to be able to narrate this adventure. Now it's time to return, I hope soon, to Beijing. And act as a correspondent on the ground rather than a chronicler of a quarantine newspaper that comes to an end.
Back home, my brother wants to order Chinese food to celebrate my return. I like the idea. But we did not expect that the Chinese restaurant we go to was always closed. It is the first time it closes on a Thursday.
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