Suddenly downtown was empty. It was no longer fun to walk around in. I wondered what would become of the pigeons. They live off the kindness of strangers and now that the strangers were gone. What would become of them?
They kept the busses running, so that essential people could get to work and run things for those of us who weren't, and maybe to keep up our spirits, see everything is going on as usual, nothing to worry about here. I rode the trains from downtown to the end of their lines and then back downtown. Often I was the only one in the car, the streets we passed were empty. After awhile the cars got used to empty sidewalks and sped through the streets so that it was a bit dangerous walking around.
Nobody knew how The Corona was spread, it was suggested that along with a mask you should wear gloves, some suggested sun glasses to keep it out of your eyes. The Jewel was open as was Walgreens, their employees deemed essential to provision those of us with nothing to do but eat and watch Netflix.
If the place was too full you had to wait outside until somebody left. The floor was a maze of arrows pointing this way and that, too much too handle sometimes because you were in a hurry to get in and out before the virus, likely hanging in the air or sitting on the shelves could get inside you. If I picked up an item and then decided I didn't want to buy it, I would often buy it anyway because maybe I was infected and I didn't want to infect my fellow citizens. Lines in front of the cash register were long because people were standing six feet apart on little circles.
But at least we knew it would all be over soon. As my friend wrote me in that letter that started all this:
We have until the end of the month when the city comes alive again. So things are not that bad.
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