**COVID 19 global pandemic restrictions in B.C., Canada announced in March 2020**
May 02, 2020
Post has been edited and updated. This little saga, if I can dare to give it that name, started out as a single blog post. Because it has evolved into an ever evolving story (at this date 38 Episodes), I am reviewing all future blogs to assess timelines and details to fix any discrepancies.
March 25, 2020: My imagination has been severely challenged this last few weeks. Mounds of information. Too little interesting stimulation to my brain. (By the way, the House Wren nest has been very busy on the inside. Are there babies in there?) Back to my writing challenge. I needed a prompt. www.writingexercises.co.uk, the Random Line Generator, as one of my go to aids. My muse and my pen took it from there. First draft in my journal and second draft, in a completely different direction, on my Laptop. Hope you enjoy this little bit of slapstick ~ don’t think I’ve tried that before.
March 05, 2023: I've just updated the title to indicate Chapter One! I am slowly going through all the rest from the beginning of this story to include 'Chapter One.......'
Six Feet of Separation
Head held high she swept out of the room. A second later, head even higher, she swept back in, snatched up the money and was gone again. But that wasn’t the whole story. Security officers, their desks six feet apart had been watching Desperanza when she entered the bank.
Covid19, a ‘novel virus’, had swept the globe. Public Health restrictions were popping up like mushrooms after a rain. The Global Grand Banks, better known as GGB’s, were rotating closures of their branches and this was one of them. The bank manager had been suspicious of her for quite some time. Long before the Invisible Menace had taken over the world. The security guards, in stiff blue uniforms with nightsticks and handcuffs, had been alerted to watch for her.
Stanley, short, round and bald and Giovanni, tall, thin and with a man-bun were security officers assigned to guard the branch. They had seen Desperanza walk boldly up to the front door on their security monitors. She slid her security card through the slot to open the door and pushed her way quickly into the lobby. Stanley and Giovanni, switched off their separate computers, scrambled under their separate desks and hoped that Desperanza would think the branch was empty.
“Stanley! Giovanni! Are you here today?”
“Giovanni!” “Stanley!” “Answer me!”
“All right then, I’m just going down to the Manager’s Office and leave her a note that I’ll be driving out of the city.”
~~~~~
Desperanza had no idea that the bank would be so empty today. She had heard the rumours, but surely the Manager would be in her gigantic office. Miss Prudhomme never left work. Desperanza stopped to read the enormous sign on the Manager’s door. ‘All Who Enter Here Must Stay Six Feet Away From Everyone and Everything’ Desperanza shrugged her proud shoulders. That rumour was just scare tactics and Desperanza wasn’t scared. She opened the door anyway. And there it was. Piles of money. Coins winking in the sunlight streaming through the window. Bills stacked neatly ~ little bricks of lovely money. Where were the guards! Why weren’t they here? Why was the money just there for anyone to take? Hmm, I’m anyone and I’m here. I guess I should help myself. Just as she stepped over the ‘six feet from the desk’ line, lights flashed and alarm bells went off. Desperanza grabbed the stack of bills, knocked over all the coins. Her head still held high, she didn’t see the coins under her feet. She slipped and the bills flew out of her hand as she grabbed for the door to steady herself but she lost her balance and tripped over a small black leather garbage can, her glasses flying off her face. Just as she was scrambling to find her glasses, she heard the hurried stomping of booted feet. She only saw Stanley come through the door…..no…….Giovanni was there too but they seemed to be…….. six feet apart?. She felt a handcuff on one wrist then a hand cuff on the other. A sound like chains? These guys each had handcuff after handcuff after handcuff keeping them six feet from their captive.
“Now what, Stanley”
“We’ll just have to leave her here. Cuff her to that heavy oak desk and I’ll call Miss Prudhomme.”
Well, that’s about all there is to that story. Miss Prudhomme called the police. Before the police arrived to take Desperanza away, the security guards sprayed everything down with their Lysol spray guns ~ Desperanza, the money, the desk…..everything. They went back to their six feet apart desks. Stanley played solitaire on his computer. Giovanni listened to Madame Butterfly on his headphones Neither of them had touched their faces throughout the whole ordeal.
“I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humour in it.”
~ Frank A. Clark, lawyer and politician (1860 - 1936)
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