The Window
By Rayelle Cato Katherine took her seat by the window. It was either 8 o’clock in the morning or 5:30 in the evening. Time blurred into one continuous minute. She was convinced it had been Sunday for at least five days now. The rest of the days did not exist. Nothing really happens at the window. The streets are bare. Sometimes cars drive past her house or people walk down the street. There are also kids who ride their bikes, but she doesn’t pay attention to them. If she did, she would start to feel envious. Why couldn’t she be outside? How come they are outside enjoying the sun and their friends? She shouldn’t be complaining; she could go outside if she wanted to. All she had to do was put clothes on, get a mask, go to the door, open it, and step outside. It’s simple, but she can’t do it. She’s scared. The virus is airborne, meaning it could be everywhere the air is. And the air is everywhere, except space. She could go to space and not get the virus, but that’s too expensive. Plus, she doesn’t know where she could get a rocket. So she’s stuck behind the window. Katherine knows that she is not in the danger zone. She’s not old and she’s healthy. But there’s always a what if. What if she was unlucky and got the virus? She was already unlucky; she didn’t want to make it worse. What if she calls someone and they cough on the phone and pass the virus to her? It could happen. Anything is possible. She doesn’t want to risk it, so she sits by the window. It does get boring sometimes, but there’s nothing else to do. She does have hobbies, but
she can’t enjoy them. If she does, the hobby will become a job, and she won’t enjoy it anymore. If she wants to preserve the hobby, she has to wait until the quarantine is over. Which seems like never. Every time quarantine comes close to ending, more days get tacked on, and she has to stay in the house. She has to continue to look out of the window. She hates that window. She wants to go outside and see her friends. She’s tired of being excited when a car rolls by. She wants to leave. Speaking of seeing people, there’s her neighbor Ms. Travis, who just left her house. She coughs. The mailman looks at her, frozen to the spot. He starts backing up when she says that she was just clearing her throat. He nods his head, but Katherine is sure he doesn’t believeMs. Travis. He starts speed walking and throwing people’s mail. Katherine sighs. It’s frightening to see people afraid of a cough. Will it be like this after the quarantine? How long after the quarantine will people be afraid of coughing? Will everyone be in quarantine mode even though the stores open back up? Will she still be in quarantine mode? Katherine already knows she’s staying in the house after stores open. Everyone will be going everywhere possible. Her family is already planning visits. Too dangerous. Too much potential exposure to the virus. Katherine freezes. She doesn’t want to think about family. If she did, she would start thinking about how
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I BelongMagazine.com, Autumn 2020. All rights reserved. Published by Unified Efforts, Inc., Baltimore, MD, https://unifiedefforts.org
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