American Quarantine
The first day of spring has come and gone making the snow fall even more impactful. Here in New England we’re used to being snowed in. We are all prepared for times indoors when we may rather be anywhere else. I once heard a woman here say, “do you even live in New England if you don’t have two types of heat in your home”. The quarantine is something we should be able to handle no problem.
We may leave our homes if we absolutely have to but are asked to stay at least six feet away from other people. With most things already shut down there is nowhere to go anyway. Diane had already been home a week with her daughter Whitney and their two cats and one dog. Diane’s husband Jack has only been home for three days and he’s already drunk his way through the stockpiles of budweiser in their food storage. Thankfully...regretfully...both I suppose, the liquor stores are still open.
Yes, the liquor stores are still open leaving all the cashiers and stock persons available for infection. The head cashier, Steve, has been to work everyday since everything started to shut down. Steve’s mother is in an expensive assisted living home and he’s really happy to be getting all this overtime. He’s certainly not lonely working all these hours. The store almost seems busier than right before the holidays. One regular, Bill, even tipped him in toilet paper.
Bill is an older guy. He was a retired military man. Bill served in Vietnam and still wears something with some army green in it everyday. He loves being out and keeping in touch with his friends, especially other vets. Ever since this whole thing started he has been tipping people with toilet paper. He likes a good laugh, and this made him laugh every time. Even when he handed the pretty grocery store cashier, Jane a roll and her boyfriend Todd, who’d been waiting for her to go on break did not think it was very funny.
In fact Todd had been livid. He left before Jane even got to take her break with him. She knew things would get ugly when she got home. After 5 more hours on her feet listening to customers complain about the lack of pasta and toilet paper Jane finally got to go home. Most people would be relieved, but Jane was dreading it. When she finally walked through the door she didn’t see Todd right away. She quietly turned down their little hall into the open kitchen holding tension in her shoulders and saw Todd gripping the counter top with his back turned to her. Their neighbors Tina and Lee who normally work this time of day were both home due to shutdowns.
Tina heard it first, then Lee. They made eye contact and in an instant understood so much about their sweet quiet neighbor and her charismatic husband. Tina picked up her phone and called 911. Lee paced nervously but couldn’t take the helpless feeling. She marched barefoot out of the apartment door and started banging and yelling “the police are on their way you fucking son of a bitch!!!” Tina, still holding her phone, ran out to pull Lee away. Her timing impeccable as Todd ran out the door and down the back stairs of the building. Tina and Lee sat with a crumpled sobbing Jane as they waiting for EMS.
This was Grace’s one year anniversary serving as an EMT. All her trips in and out of the hospital for emergencies lately have been haunted by ED waiting rooms full of people who think they have the virus. Grace couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to people like Jane and little kids with broken arms and old ladies who fall at home. Will there be room for them? Grace couldn’t think of that now. Her shift had barely started. Once they got Jane inside she told her partner to give her a second and grabbed some Cheez-its from the vending machine right by the door. Grace could always rely on that machine for some good stress eating.
Phil, the vending machine operator for that machine and lot more in town, had just been there this morning. He had tried that week to fill everyone up that he could. At the moment his route was shrinking since so many places were closed. The hospital would always need him at least. Phil’s favorite stop has always been and will always be the big office building off of Industrial. The ladies there were the prettiest and the nicest on the route. Phil was wishing he could go again today but he’d just been there two days ago. Phil could never resist stopping at the desk there and trying to charm the women by kissing them on the hand. Lisa was one of only about a dozen people left working in the building.
Two days earlier Lisa saw Phil coming up the parking lot from the front desk. She groaned internally preparing herself for his attempts at flirting. Lisa hated people being too close to begin with but now she was even more uncomfortable. Hoping, at the very least, Phil wouldn’t try to kiss her hand, she greeted him cheerfully. Lisa’s stomach turned as Phil went for her hand. She hestitated a millisecond too long to regain possession of her own hand and it was too late. Yuck. Lisa waiting for him to walk away before she poured a generous amount of sanitizer over her hands. She could still feel the warm point of contact and decided to go scrub up at the sink. Lisa saw her co-worker Pat in the ladies scrubbing away as well.
Pat chuckled commiseratingly and apologized to Lisa as they stood shoulder to shoulder at the sinks. Even though Lisa hadn’t realized it, Pat also saw Phil coming and had ducked into the back before he saw her. Pat had mixed feelings about still being at the office while almost everyone else was working from home. She promised herself since she had to be out anyway, she’d stop at the liquor store and pick up some nice daiquiri ingredients for this weekend.
Diane, Whitney, Jack, Steve, Bill, Jane, Todd, Tina, Lee, Grace, Phil, Lisa and Pat all led very different lives but in the end they all had one thing in common.
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from Short Stories
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