Pandemic Yearning

 “It’s funny”. He spoke through a rictus grin. “I don’t remember you being this angry”.

“Angry”? She said sarcastically. ”Why would I be angry”?

“I don’t know. Especially as, if I remember correctly, you were the one who made all the decisions”.

“Decisions?”

Zack leaned a little closer to her.”Not to meet me? Not to even discuss what we had promised to discuss?”

Hey! Sandra, what happened?

Sexy feet…! Sandra murmured.

Huh what, Sandra?

‘I said 60 feet social distance, Sandra asserted.

Zack laughed aloud, ’oh no!It’s just 6 feet!

Sandra had become paranoid after the Pandemic set in.

Zack came forward, Sandra screamed, ’don’t touch my bag! Whenever she touched a surface, a door knob or a simple parcel lying outside her door, she would panic to think “Did I touch COVID-19?”, and wash her hands frequently throughout the day.

Zack grimly,”Sandra, get a hold on yourself!

Liza came pushing her trolley full of groceries, she almost dashed into Zack.

Hey, Zack, you are back on your two feet!

Zack tried to silence her with a gesture. But Liza babbled on,’ you know Zack, those 7 weeks at the City Hospital, I had the urge to call Sandra and tell her about you’.

Sandra cautiously came forward, Liza jumped to hug her but Sandra took a step back.

‘What happened to Zack?’

Liza turned to Zack, ’so, you didn’t tell her?’

‘Tell what’, Sandra pestered.

‘Zack was on a ventilator for weeks inside the ICU. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, he was kept in isolation.

Sandra gasped, oh NO!

Zack grinned, ’I am ok now. ‘Sandra, I know you would dread ‘the news that I had COVID-19.

.

The last time Sandra met her fiancé, Zack; it was at a restaurant, on March 17,2020. They promised to meet again on April 7,2020 -- birthday of Sandra. Zack had bought a special birthday gift, a diamond ring; to surprise Sandra with his proposal. Little did they know that on her birthday, Zack would fall sick and test positive for COVID-19.

Sandra was livid, ‘so you thought you could just disappear from my life, without a trace’.

Zack lowered his lids,’ Sandra! Listen!

Sandra,’No, I won’t listen!

‘Check your phone, note how many hundreds of calls, texts, emails I did!

Zack,’calm down’, calm down please, Sandra.

Zack hugged her.

Sandra shrunk away,’oh NO!

Zack knew Sandra suffered from hypervigilance about cleanliness and the ‘social distance’ norm, she was taking very seriously.

Zack smirked,’ see, you shirk being touched, how would you respond if I told you, I was in ICU for COVID-19?

Sandra blushed,’umm…I…..I

Zack told her,’I know, leave it unsaid!

.Seeing Zack suddenly in the supermarket on 14^th September, 2020 it was like waking up from a stupor. They stared at each other for a moment. Zack looked exactly the same, Sandra thought, no –better, damn it-

Both were wearing masks, it was just the two of them, marooned on their part of the supermarket. It was a strange meeting, both knew hand-holding, hugging and kissing were taboo!

You never were a big one for commitment, were you?” Sandra angrily flashed.

She felt his eyes on her and flushed. Shut up, she told herself. Other people were only a matter of some 15 feet away.

Zack’s voice dropped to a murmur. ”Are we really going to do this?”

Zack felt the need to confess, worried that his proposal might come to a pretty humbling denouement, if Sandra didn’t respond, He might still be hung up on what might have been.

Sandra felt a kind of recklessness building within her. How many times had she wanted to have this conversation? How many times had she rehearsed all the things she wanted to say to him? How could he stand there and behave as if nothing had happened after all?

“You really want to get into this now, Sandra?”

“Why not?” she said, waving back. ”It’s only been 5 months. I figure that’s a pretty decent period of time to put off an argument.”

“

“NOT TO MEET YOU?” She turned and stared at him. ”Are we talking about the same relationship during Pandemic”

Both in self isolation to protect from the deadly infection of a bat-born, spikey ball-shaped, gorgeous-looking infinitesimal virus with a name befitting a royal!

“The day you left,” he hissed beside her,” you were going to meet me at The Hub, so that we could discuss our future, and you never even turned up. There was no way to contact you, Sandra! You refused to answer the phone and you avoided me like the Corona!

“The Hub?”

“And you knew I couldn’t reach you once you handed in your work phone. What was I supposed to think? Don’t you believe that after everything we’d been through, everything we had promised each other, that I deserved a little more than just a no-show?”

Her voice dropped to a whisper.”It was The Hilltop” we were due to meet at “The Hilltop”. And YOU were the one who didn’t turn up.”

Their eyes locked.

People were increasing in number in the supermarket; Zack was feeling an electric jolt as their hands made contact. “Two hours I waited.”

They stared at each other. For a moment, everything disappeared, She was there on a wet Friday, weeping into her jacket in almost empty “The Hilltop”.

“There’s nothing to say. We’ve moved on.”

She felt the faintest pressure and realized with shock that it was his leg against hers. From day one on Earth, lovers are hardwired to touch, hold and kiss one another.

“Have you”? He said quietly, and the words went through her like a seismic tremor. ”Really”?

“All this time”, Zack said quietly, ’both of us believing the other had bailed out.”

I just figured you’d tired of my indecision.”

“I’d waited the best part of a year. I would have waited”.

“You never said that”.

“I hoped I wouldn’t have to.”

She had grieved for him. His lips closed in. She again yelped. Coronavirus stole the sweet magic of kissing. She head-butted him and squealed, and that was the end of it.

The “touch starvation.” has affected the psyche of lovers.

Both coronavirus pandemic and the protocols that came with changed the trajectory of the relationship between the two.