Home is my Quarantine

The day finally came. It was all over.

“Ma’am, you don’t need to wear your mask anymore. You may take it off if you like.” A greeter at the local store who doesn’t know what it was like to grow up in my time. I am only 56 years old and I feel like I am 80. The pandemic seized to exist for 6 years now. But I still wear a mask everywhere out of habit.

“Oh, thank you.” I tell the young man at the door. My, how time has flown by. Kids are running around and there are no more masks. Everyone was living carefree with no wonder of the world. As I take off my mask, I have a flashback.

“Ma’am, please put your mask back on. It is required in the store. This is a pandemic.”

“You must wear a mask in the store at all times.”

I was just a girl who had no idea of what was happening. I was a teenager, who was wanting to live my life. But it had to be a life with a mask.

I head inside the store, keeping my distance from people out of habit. Why is everyone so bunched up? Don’t they know to stay 6 feet apart? But there is no pandemic. It has been hard to adjust to something I am not used to. I go down an aisle with no one there.

“People just don’t understand these days” I mumble to myself. Distraught with how the new generations are turning out to be. As I continue to mumble, a man walks over and chuckles at me. I turn to face him, anger radiating from me.

As soon as I look at him, shock covers my face, “Brandon, is that you?” I ask in disbelief.

“Well its nice to see you too Charlotte” He responds in a teasing tone. “How have you been? I haven’t seen you in years. I thought you were dead.” He says with a chuckle.

“Oh shush. Nothing can kill me that easily. It’s good to see you. I’ve been good. How have you been? You haven’t stopped by since the pandemic ended. I was getting worried.” I feel the concern seeping into my voice. I have known this man for my whole life.

“Well, its been hard getting used to everything now. But I’ve been good. My boys been down though. Haven’t spoken to him in a few years since he moved out. It was nice seeing him though. What about you? Have you gotten married yet?” He continues although I wasn’t paying attention. I had another flashback.

“I’m having a boy Char! He’s going to be strong. I can’t wait for you to see him as soon as this pandemic is over. You’re going to love him!” Brandon boasted to me over the phone about his new baby son being born. He went on for days talking bout him. I never got to see him. The pandemic was still going, and the boy grew up before I saw him.

“Char? Earth to Char, come in Char. Do you read me?” Brandon is waving his hand in front of my face, trying to gain my attention.

“O-oh. Sorry. Spaced off a bit there.” I explain feeling my cheeks burn from embarrassment.

“Glad to see you’re still the same” He teases me. Yup, I’m still the same. Always have been, always will be. “Anyways, as I was saying, I want to know what I missed during the pandemic. Have you gotten married yet?”

I look at him with a straight face. How could he think that I would’ve gotten married during the pandemic? Just cause him and his wife did, doesn’t mean that I was lucky like that. “Oh, no. Obviously not.” I turn away and start continuing shopping. He stays with me.

“Why not? I remember you going out and still talking to people. Yet, you haven’t found anyone?” he asks in astonishment.

Continuing to shop, I answer, “No. I wasn’t going out to ‘find’ someone. I was going out to try to visit the people I knew I wasn’t going to see for years.” I said it not realizing that I forgot that I never saw him during that time.

“yet, you never came and saw me.”

“You guys were having a baby. I didn’t want to risk it with the newborn getting sick. Or Wendy getting sick.” I practically yell at him. As much as I love this man, he wouldn’t understand.

“you still could’ve looked through the window and waved or something! Do you know how worried I was about you Char! You’re my best friend. I don’t want anything bad happening to you.”

“Alright, I understand. But I need to shop and get some groceries. Ill see you around.” I say as I walk away from him. I can’t go visit because that’s not the right thing. We can’t be safe enough. As I head up to the self-checkout, I wait for the person to clean and allow me to use one of the registers.

“Ma’am, you can use any register you would like” the young woman told me. Motioning to all the registers that were there.

“O-oh. Thank you.” I move to one of the registers and stop.

“Excuse me, ma’am. I need to clean and disinfect that register before you use it. If you would please step aside and let me do that then you can go back to scanning.” A woman older than me asks me to move. She’s wearing a black mask and rubber gloves. She holds a disinfectant spray and a towel. “There you go ma’am. All clean and ready to go.”

I finish loading my car and start to move out. Things were starting to become different and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to keep up. The world isn’t what it used to be when I was younger. It is changing for the better now. I leave the store and head home. Home is my quarantine that I am afraid to leave.