Pandemic Land

Pandemic Land is a very weird place.

Everyone is infected but they’re not. You have to put blind faith in your leaders when you’ve never put blind faith in anything in your life. You’ve questioned every religion you’ve ever encountered and now you’re supposed to blindly follow those in charge. No one you know is sick. No one you know has died. You hear vague stories of an aunt of a friend of a friend who passed away. And yet life has been alerted in drastic ways.

You walk around with a face mask. You’ve always used a smile and your charm to get your way. It’s hard when half your face is missing. You feel guilty like you’re accusing everyone you meet of being infected. You apologize awkwardly to make up for not being able to smile. People nod and understand but do they.

Each shopping trip is like a perverse game of hop-scotch. There are squares marking where to stand. Directives of when to move. You’re in a board game where you don’t know the rules. No one does as you look around. You see the unmasked pariahs. You see the gloved cross contaminators.

You stand to talk with the requisite six feet distance. You see the stares from others. You’re blocking the aisles. You’re breaking the rules. People try to maneuver their carts between the two of you as quickly as possible. You’re sure you caught someone holding their breath. You laugh with your unmasked friend at the absurdity. You laugh at the absurdity of your own masked face.

You finally make your way to the cashier. So young and cheerful. She encourages you to shop local. We’re all in this together. You know the slogan by now. We’ve all been indoctrinated together. You thank her. Tell her the required stay safe.

You read the news. There is a new case. The panic rises. School is closed for the rest of the year. The children cheer. You silently cheer. How were you ever going to teach your students after this month and a half of chaos? You’ve been stressing and not able to sleep for weeks thinking about it.

Pandemic Land has brought out the conspiracy theorist in droves. You read in odd horror that anyone actually believes this bullshit. Then you realize these are your friends, your kid’s friend’s parents. You start to question your sanity. How did you ever think anyone was normal. Everyone keeps saying time will show if this works. And we will only know if people don’t get sick. You understand logically but after a month you just want to get sick and either live or die so you can move on with life.

Pandemic Land has to be the worst place you have lived and you know it has left an indelible mark on the landscape.