Part 7: Pulling Out the Rug

Chapter 1: Am I Sick?

"I am trying to teach my mind
to bear the long, slow growth
of the fields, and to sing
of its passing while it waits." 

Wendell Berry, Collected Poems (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2012), 221.

Photo by Mark Holloway on Unsplash

Wednesday, July 8, 2020
	A most peculiar thing happens after getting together with people these days. There’s an incubation period of wondering and worrying. 
	Is that a tickle at the back of my throat? I think I have a headache. Could I have gotten COVID from those people? Could they have had it and not known? Maybe they were asymptomatic carriers. What will it feel like to have COVID? Will I die?   Maybe I’ve had COVID this whole time and didn’t know it. Maybe I’ve just passed COVID on to those people. Where does one get tested for COVID? How long must I wait to find out if I have COVID, and in that time, could I contract COVID from elsewhere if I don’t already have it?
	The thoughts go round and round like a person lost in a corn maze with no profitable end. And while I enjoy mazes as much as the next person, I prefer to do them on paper where I can see everything and work backward from the ending to the start instead of the other way around. 
	It’s no fun to actually be in a corn maze aimlessly rounding bends only to see the same tall corn over and over and over again and bump into the same lost people dripping sweat and just as thirsty as me. I know how corn mazes work. Once we tried one with the twins before Johnny was born. Opal was terrified of getting lost and clung to my shorts the whole time while Theo just pushed himself through the corn walls, forging a path as we desperately tried not to lose him.
	Perhaps after visiting with new people these days, it’s best to stick one’s head in the sand and pretend everything is fine. Wash dishes. Listen to a comedian on YouTube. Keep busy.
	In case my future self is wondering what all this is about, we just returned from the park where there were a total of five other humans. Perhaps those humans are wondering if they're sick too.

COVID Indicator Idea: Everyone has a colored bubble floating over their head. The bubble changes colors based on how many people you’ve been around in the last forty-eight hours. If you’ve been around many people, the bubble is red. If you’ve been at home, it’s green. Those who’ve been in huge crowds get purple bubbles and have to go to distraction sessions afterwards where puzzles and mazes keep their minds occupied until their bubbles turn green again.