Love in the time of quarantine

I was born in the summer. To be specific I was born on July 4th. It has often been said that people tend to favor seasons they enjoy with the month that they were born. That was definitely true for me.  My favorite sports were played in the summer, there was no school in the summer, and I met my true love in the summer.

When I close my eyes, I remember that night so clearly.  I was spending the evening with some friends for the first time in over four months.  We were all weary from sheltering in place. It was 2920 and we were in the grip of a pandemic. I knew about the pandemic of 2020 because it was recorded in the history books.  That pandemic took the lives of over one million people worldwide. But this pandemic was worse.  The scientists and researchers had no ideas on how to stop it and there was no vaccine to eradicate it.

I was 25 years old and had just finished my last year at UCLA. When the pandemic hit that March, school administrators decided to quarantine the whole school.  The only time we were allowed to leave our shelter was to get food and any  bare necessities for daily living.  Masks and gloves were required at all times.  Our failure to comply would result in disciplinary action.

We were at dinner, plotting a way to leave the campus for just a few hours.  My roommate Katie, and our friends Iris and Jennifer rememered that there was an abandoned house about a mile away from the campus.  It had been previously owned by a history professor, his wife and their only son.

When the administrator had failed to show up for a board meeting one morning, they went to the house and found the couple had sucumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning.  The son was visiting with family when the incident occurred.

"Why don't we sneak out of here tonight after curfew.  The RA never leaves her room after 10:00. We can leave than and never get caught". 

The house itself was sealed off by a wire fence with a posted sign that read NO TRESPASSING, VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED.  But there was a clear path leading to the carraige house so that was where we were headed.

We parked ourselves near a Fernwood tree and talked about our plans after graduation.  Katie, my roommate was an English major and was planning on teaching.  She had already gotten a job in the city. I on the other hand had no idea what I wax going to do. Iris and Jennifer had also gotten jobs in their fields of study.

I looked up and stared at the full moon. It felt so good to sit quietly and enjoys the clear sky.  We did not have to be burdened with wearing masks.  There was nobody out here who could make us ill; we would be safe from harm.

The wine and fruit we had brought with us had numbed our senses and I looked over to Katie to see that she had fallen sound asleep. The other two girls had headecd back earlier.  It was almost 1 a.m. and we had to start heading back to the dorm.  As I was about to get up and wake Katie, I heard a rustling behind me.

"Excuse me, you aren't supposed to be here.  This is private property".

I turned around and was startled to come face to face with the most handsome man I had ever met in my life.  He had grey-blue eyes, a head of thick black hair, and tall. I couldn't take my eyes off him.

I stammered, and said  "we just had to get away and thought this was just the place to go". "But why are you here"? " Why aren't you wearing a mask"?

 "You could say I am the caretaker here.  I lived in that house with my parents, but after their untimely deaths I could nor bear to stay,  so I moved into the carraige house".

"Truth be told, I have become somewhat of a recluse, nobody visits or bothers me, and the school pays me to keep up the property".

"Oh" he said.  I am glad to meet you" " My name is Richard, but you can call me Rick.  Rick Welsley".

"My name is Alicia Simms". My roommate Katie and I just came to enjoy the silence out here".  "We're sorry to bother you.  We'll just leave".

Rick looked me up and down, smiled at me and glanced over to see Katie still deep in slumber.

"Why don't you let her sleep"?  "Come in and I'll make some herbal tea for us.  It's the only beverage I drink".

I laughed, because I happened to love herbal tea. I loved the fragrance that came out of that little paper sac; the fragrance that woul dance around the room for only a few moments.

We sat there, drinking our tea, and talked about our dreams and goals for the future.  As it turns out Rick was only a year older than I and was studying to be a professor and follow in his father's footsteps.

I tarted to get very sleepy myself, between the wine and the tea, and being in the room with this handsome guy made me feel like i was floating on air.  I walked over to Katie and introduced her to Rick.

"Let me walk you back to your dorm.  You shouldn't be walking alone this late at night".

When we got to the dorm he pulled me aside and invited me to have dinner with me the next evening.  We agreed to meet the next evening at the carraige house and he would make me a dinner I would never forget.

The next night I put on the cutest dress I owned, put on my mask and gloves, and walked out of my dorm with a smile on my face.

We dated all that summer and on my 26th birthday, with the fireworks sounding off around us, Rick asked me to marry him.

That was twenty years ago.  Rick fixed up the house to our own liking.  We had two children, Bonnie and Rick Jr.  The pandemic lasted over a year, but we stopped paying any attention to what was going on. We had each other and that meant more to us than what was happening in the rest of the world.

Rick was hired as an English Professor and I was a wife and mother, and stayed home to take care of our children.