Post-Pandemic Musings
“Do you remember the night you picked me up in Hartley?” Dez had been staring out the dining room window. She turned away from her dreaming and started stuffing her paper work in her new brief case. “What night? You mean that time last week?” Dez shook her head, snapping the case shut and setting it on the floor. “No. Two years - no, three years ago. Anyway it was March of 2020. Her sister put her book down, rested her head back on her favourite reading chair. “Oh, that night! That was a horrible night. Even so memories are pretty vague, except that the police called and I didn’t have anyone to call. I was so frightened.”
“Why did you come? I mean, we hadn’t parted on the best of terms and it had been ten years. You could have stayed home in bed. Why did you come if no one was there to help you?” She sat across from Emelina on the sofa. Emelina sat up, made sure she had kept her place in the novel she was reading, and said. “I don’t know. I just knew that my sister was in trouble.” They had never talked about it. As a matter of fact, for the two weeks that were in isolation, they didn’t talk much in first few days, and when they did it was as little as possible. Dez looked down at her hands; her sister stared up at the ceiling. Without moving, Emelina said, “Good thing I knew how to drive and where the keys might be. That took me some time…….to find the keys that is. There just wasn’t anyone here.” Her sister stood and went to the book shelves, looked through the titles for a book she wasn’t even looking for. Pulling a random book from the shelves, she flipped through the pages. “The house was so empty! Before I had even put the phone down, I could feel the emptiness. Not a sound, nothing cooking, Brigitte wasn’t with me where she always had been, just empty. That frightened me.” Dez put the useless book back and turned to her sister. “You? Frightened? I suppose I really didn’t know you and what your life had been like. I just thought you were rich and happy, didn’t know that Michael had died and you had kind of lost it.” Em sat up. “That’s unkind, Dez. I suppose it’s true, though. If it hadn’t been for my staff, my people, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Worry spread across her sister’s face. “What do you mean? You wouldn’t……..” She let the sentence hang empty in the air. “I don’t like to think I would, but I was lost without Michael. He did everything for me, until I got mad and demanded that I get my own way. He was my life. Do you want to walk for a bit?” Dez laughed. “That was a quick change, sis. Sure, it’s a nice evening. Matt’s not expecting me for a couple of hours.”
~~~~~
The evening was still hot and muggy. A cool breeze was attempting to come in through the trees at the back of the walking track. “Maybe a walk wasn’t the best idea, but it is good to be outside.” Only the crunch of gravel under their feet and the ever present gulls accompanied them. Despite the ocean humidity on the island, it had been dry and hot for too long. Forest fires on the mainland and some up island all but ruined the island’s idyllic image. “When the officer explained the pandemic situation to me and the lock down the city had proclaimed I had no idea where I was going to go. What I was going to do. I’d lost my apartment and my job. It’s just lucky I still had your phone number in my cell phone. I wasn’t going to give you the satisfaction of me begging for your help, but the officer called you anyway. I was still mad at you for something. Can’t remember what it was now.” They had reached a bench at the far end of the track. “Let’s sit for a minute, Dez. Did you bring your water?” She reached in her pocket and pulled out her small pastel pink water bottle. “No, but I’m ok. I had lots to drink earlier.” The sun was setting behind the trees, golden light filtering through. “Whatever your reasons, I’m glad you came to rescue me.” Emelina smiled at her sister. “So am I. I’m glad we’ve worked through all our baggage. It could have been a lonely couple of years. I don’t know what I would have done without you while my staff was isolating away. I still feel odd calling them ‘my staff’. It sounds rather stuffy.”
“Don’t worry about it, Em. They know you care about them and not just as their boss. Martha and Cook have both told me they worried about you being on your own. They didn’t know anything about me until we contacted them.”
~~~~~
The COVID 19 pandemic had turned everyone’s life upside down. Some people survived it and others did not. Sarah, the little ghost girl, had watched as everyone panicked and left the house. Seeing her mistress all alone, she had wanted to help but didn’t know how. She sat in the chair by her bed watching her. When the thing called a phone rang, she didn’t fade away. When Emelina spoke into it and said she would ‘be right there’, Sarah knew what she had to do. She put things out for her, guided her to the things called ‘keys’ and watched as she drove away. It wasn’t long before she was back bringing a strange angry looking woman with her. Sarah still watched to make sure the mistress of the house was all right. Now, here they both were. Everyone else had returned and gone about life as though nothing had changed. Even though from the outside everyone appeared normal again, Sarah could see hesitation when there were too many people around. Very sensitive, she knew when the world was too much for any of them. People went away again. It was getting better, but until it was, Sarah would keep close watch on them, especially her mistress.
“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
~ Sydney J. Harris
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