Beyond the Mask

Its March 2022. Exactly two years since the world had been facing the pandemic. The United States government and the other countries of the world declared the respective countries covid free a week ago. Everything is back to normal. Thank God the 'new normal' is not normal anymore. Offline schools have reopened, co-orperate sectors have reopened, people are back to work, the world is back on the track and finally humans can breathe beyond the masks.

Cassie, a 21 years old psychology student in New York is having hard time to sink in , a hard time to finally accept that all the normal things are finally normal again. A New Yorker who is an introvert and who appreciated lockdown the most.

"Cassie,cassie wake up !....it's already 7:40 am , you'll surely miss your first offline lecture " said Natasha,her roommate.

Cassie lived in a hostel with her best friend and roommate Natasha. They both studied in the New York University.

"I'm so excited to finally learn with other humans other than you , so WAKE UP!!".

"No way ,stay away from me !" Cassie screamed in her sleep.

Cassie woke up at once , and realised it was just a nightmare ."Nats, I saw the worst nightmare ever, I ran out of sanitizers and you were trying to hug me ".

Natasha laughed and said "Cassie gone are those days. No masks ,No sanitizers and No online classes,its a covid free world finally! "

"Yeah right, time to face the real world" sighed Cassie.

Cassie dressed up and looked at the mask near her desk , almost forgetting that it's no more a part of her outfit then she looked at her self in the mirror and said" why do I feel like I'm half naked just because a mask is missing on my face" she smiled and left for her class , as she was walking by the corridor,she saw everybody hugging each other, being happy to see each other and saying things like " I missed you " . " Why does this all feel wrong Nats, as if I can literally sue everybody for socializing" she said to Natasha with a mean tone.

" It's been 2 years Cassie and lockdown has affected you the most ,it will take time..let things sink " said Natasha making Cassie feel good . Cassie checked her phone for some news updates. She expected the headline to be '1010 new Corona cases' but was relieved to see '1010 new peolpe vaccined' as soon as she kept her phone in her pocket she heard an announcement "Dear students , we request all of the bachelor students to gather on the 4th floor seminar hall for a welcome back session".

"Oh I'm not ready for the crowd" said Cassie with a tensed voice.

"You'll be fine" said Natasha with a pat on Cassie's back.

Three hundred students were gathered in the hall. Everybody was being excited and happy. As an anti social Cassie could never understand the excitement people had to see other people who are just as annoying as themselves . It's not that Cassie wasnt happy with the post pandemic world it's just that being her self that is being in a room for hours and hours had become normal because of covid and now suddenly going back to the same world where people used to question about her being in a room all day is difficult . It's hard to move on .

Cassie saw the students and felt both weird and nostalgic. Weird because she saw such a huge crowd 'legally' being gathered after 2 long years and nostalgic because the last time she was between 300 people was in the Black Lives Matter protest .

She sits down in the last row with Natasha. Natasha sneezes without a warning . "God bless you" wasn't Cassie's first instinct , "put your bloody mask on " was her immediate reaction.

Natasha gave her a gaze, Cassie returned back an apologetic look.

After the boring session and a long day at the University, Cassie goes to the library and picks up a random book to calm her down but was disappointed by her choice 'how socializing is important' she read the cover and kept the book back . Cassie and Natasha return back to their room for dinner.

Things have been hard for Cassie during the lockdown, even though she enjoyed most of it , she also grieved half of it. She lost her granny to covid the only parental figure she had, the only person she loved the most and cassie herself was infected by the covid-19. Loosing her granny was very hard on her she started hating humans after it .

" I know things have been tough for you cassie but it will get better, I promise,I always have your back ok." said Natasha while they were having their dinner and noticed Cassie zoned out .

"I hope things will get better, by the way can you pass me my turmeric pickle"

Natasha smiled "Cassie your immuned enough to survive the non pandemic world"

"I know ,I just love the taste". Turmeric pickle is something Cassie ate for the whole lockdown which also ended up being a part of her diet .

Its 11 pm. Cassie is laying on her bed . overthinking about how everything is back to normal but abnormal for her, How she and the whole world got used to being in a single room just as the animals with no voice have . She loosing her granny to covid has left back a trauma with her . But then she suddenly smiles thinking how Joe Biden sitting on the chair with the mask on is not a trending meme anymore. Natasha looks at her and begs her to sleep because it's post pandemic and she won't be able to sleep in the zoom lecture anymore . Cassie agrees and her eyes slowly starts getting a little dowsy. She reaches for her phone, just by her pure instinct sets an alarm for her (non existent) zoom lecture , just then a notification pops up on her screen 'zoom was last used a week ago, want to arrange a zoom meeting?'

"Damn it!" She says as reality kicks in.