Corona Multiverse
This selection will also be found in our Literary Arts Journal, Beneath the Surface.
“It’s ironic how the books about apocalyptic pandemics I was forced to read in school quickly became the world’s reality. I remember getting tested for the virus. The testing site was like something from a nightmare, people dressed in full hazmat gear like everything around us was deadly. I’m not sure why we were all so worried about Coronavirus, we all eventually got it and then all eventually got better. I remember the beginning when no one thought masks did anything but it’s twenty years later and they’re basically just another feature of our faces. The war over resources had become worse. Eventually, nothing was left to treat anyone. Imagine having to constantly wash your hands, skin cracked and dry all the time from the chemicals in the soap. Your skin is as fragile as a piece of tissue paper and there’s nothing you can really do about it.
Telling my grandkids about my childhood: “Yes, people really did use to shake hands to greet one another, that was a different time.”
At this point it’s hard to remember life before Covid19. I do remember the day they started giving us daily vaccines though. I coughed today walking down the sidewalk and everyone fled the street. The events from the prior decade are like a stain we can never wash away. Before all of this we wore normal clothes. No masks, no gloves, no shields over our faces, it was a simpler time. My granddaughter told me about how she was studying COVID19 in her textbook today. I showed her my old journals so she would have better information about what really happened. “
by Genevieve Stockwell with Alex Akers, Calle Dearmore, Britain Steward and Nisa Williams
This selection will also be found in our Literary Arts Journal, Beneath the Surface.
