Jarita Hagans
Stories (1/0)
The Day the Sickness Came
It seemed like a regular work day on the day that the sickness came. After work I went to the gym and saw it one of the TVs playing the news. I had my elliptical headphones tuned into something else, but I saw the ticker running across the bottom of another screen. “World Health Organization Declares Coronavirus a Global Pandemic”. There had been some murmurings about this new virus online and at work, but I wasn’t sure it was going to amount to anything. After all, we had prepared for an Ebola virus pandemic that never came. There were team meetings where we laid out what our response would be. We learned how to don and doff hooded masks that we never ended up using. But when this virus came, things seemed different. The first inkling was when masks started disappearing from the supply closet. I thought it was strange, so I stashed some in one of my office drawers for safekeeping. You could feel it in the air that something weird was going on. So, when they announced the pandemic, I knew my Spidey senses had been right. I decided to stop by the grocery store on the way home from the gym. I wanted to stock up on some freezer and canned goods, as well as some dry stuff for the pantry. Surprisingly, the store was pretty empty except for the people stocking the shelves. As I wandered aimlessly down the baking aisle, trying to think about what I would need for a pandemic, my eyes landed on a box of cake mix. It was one that was familiar from my childhood; a red box with a slice of chocolate cake pictured on the front. I reached for the box. I had no idea how long we might have to be in the house. I might want a little slice of comfort for the end times.
By Jarita Hagans3 years ago in Fiction