The Quarantine

Michael Lumish

Laurie and I are in our tenth day of submitting to the quarantine and so far we're doing pretty well. The mutts are happy, anyway.

But you have to wonder what this moment is like for many people. We have a friendly acquaintance a few houses up who is a sixty-eight-year-old woman who lives alone with her friendly mutt. She's a very gregarious person and has many friends in the neighborhood, but now she cannot visit them. We have told her that we would be happy to do a little grocery shopping for her when we go out, but I cannot imagine what it must be like to be all alone in that house.

Or, what if you are a single young person scraping by in a one-bedroom apartment and a job as wait-staff? The government forces your employer to close operations and subsequently you get fired. So, you have virtually no money, no job, but you need to make rent, pay utilities and, ya know, eat. Or, worse yet, say you also have a couple of young children to feed. How long can a person live like this?

Or, say, you are married with four children and three dogs and all nine of you are trapped together in the house for three weeks? Under those circumstances, the question might be, "who will come out alive?"

In any case, let's hope this blows over before the economy tanks entirely.