Love & Sex in Times of Corona

The Covid Thing

After Cilia left, Kaily went to her room to call friends. But before she went upstairs, she calls out to her father, "Daddeee."

"Yeah," he replies from the kitchen. She re-appears from the living room., "daddy, you think amazon is still delivering stuff?"

"Yeah, they are, but don't expect overnight. I've heard that some of their employees have gone on strike, and they have a shortage of people, but you'll get your stuff, maybe in a week, ten days."

"Can you lend me your credit card so I can buy something, It's nothing expensive, just 150 dollars.

Sure, no problem," Out of mindless curiosity he asked, "watcha getting?"

"Ohhh, it's a secret," she replied coyly.

"You and your secrets, It's in my wallet in my office. Use the Visa."

The only new thing now were the protests, which spread throughout the entire nation, protesting the death of the man George Floyd at the hands of a police officer a few weeks ago. Then Trump did something really stupid, he had a bunch of peaceful demonstrators cleared by Washington Park police and the Secret Service using force and tear gas, just so he could walk over to a nearby church and pose with a bible in his hand. The media called it a photo op. It was even said that he was holding the bible upside down. It was in the midst of this conversation that the telephone rang with Celia on the other end.

"honey, they just called me from Orange regional. Our results are in. We have to go pick them up personally. They wouldn't tell me anything over the phone. Something about HIPPA compliance.

So the next day, Monday, June 8th, they all take another road trip to Orange Regional which actually is just twenty minutes away. There was silence in the Jeep along with a palpable tension as everyone had their minds on the results. Once there, they identified themselves and were instructed to drive around to the back of the hospital where they saw three more large white tents. The tents were large, so large that the Ryan's saw cars pulling into the tents from one end and exiting out the other. Like their first visit, there were lines and progress was slow, but eventually it was their turn and a person appeared in what could double as a space suit and motioned for them to drive into the middle tent. Once inside, they saw that there were tables with papers stacked on them and more people in space suits.

Once in the tent, they are directed to the left, by a large makeshift table stacked with yellow envelopes. To the right, was another table, identical to the one where they parked next to, but this one was stacked with white envelopes. Robert didn't give this much thought.

One of the space suits approached them, instructed them to stay in the vehicle and asked if they are all related and if it was ok to discuss their results in the presence of the others. When they responded in the affirmative, the suit turned and picked up four yellow envelopes with the name Ryan in bold letters on the front.

The person handed Robert all four envelopes and he saw that on the flip side were their first names. He handed everyone in the Jeep their envelopes when the person in the suit began to talk. "ok, so you guys have the yellow envelopes, which means that everyone here tested positive for the virus." There was no lead up to the results, nothing to buffer what was being said. It was just facts, cold facts. She said it in a monotone voice so as not to inflect any emotion or perhaps because she was just tired of saying those words. She paused to let that fact sink in. There was silence in the Jeep. "First, I am obligated to inform you that this virus is not a death sentence. Only a small percentage of infected persons get severe symptoms." Then she went on to talk about how low the morbidity rate is per capita and...