NEW DISORDERED
WORLD
The medical system is a joke. It has been since the news broke. A deadly virus envelopes and roams suburban Sydney homes. Wear a mask or isolate all alone. The focus was purely on physical health. So much so, that I witnessed the mental health of people all over the city deteriorate before my very eyes - myself included. Everybody I knew, everybody I met, was suffering beneath the surface. Some lost their jobs without the jab and others lost their health with the jab. None of it made sense and the story changed like night and day. Throughout it all, I realised that not many people read the dictionary. If they did, they would've recognised the perpetual coercion by media outlets, health officials and politicians. Instead, most people looked at me in confusion when I'd mention how threatening to take away our jobs was coercion. Many people, however, tried to speak up but more than all were silenced. Fear of death was the primary scare tactic and it worked like a charm. If you catch it, you could die. However, we're all mortal. They marketed the vaccine as complete immunity from the virus when, in reality, nobody can achieve immortality.
I stood in a line at the coffee shop. My sister in front of me and two guys in front of her. The guys step aside then look back and forth at the barista and my sister in a strange way. I ask if they're okay. They ask the barista why she served my sister when she didn't have a mask on either.
To which my sister responds, "she knows me. I live upstairs and come here all the time."
I take a split moment to process what that has to do with her not serving them and fail to find any reasonable excuse.
"Nah it's because of my beard, isn't it?" yells one guy, pointing to his long beard.
"Yeah. She's racist," says the other.
"I'm Arab too," responds my sister, dismissively. I guess that was her attempt at diffusing the situation. I, on the other hand, do not take racism so lightly.
"Why didn't you serve them though?" I ask.
"Omg relax," responds my sister with a look that says shut up what are you doing? Her squinted eyes tell me to be quiet, but I've been silent long enough.
The barista gets defensive.
"You're not wearing a mask though. She's not wearing a mask either," I point to my sister in front of me. "So, why wouldn't you serve them?" She ignores me and proceeds to steaming the coffee. I rip my mask off in frustration. "Why are we wearing these anyway? We look like dogs." I look around and half the people aren't even wearing masks.
"It's because we're Muslim, isn't it? She's a racist bxxxh," one of the guys says. Their long beards made that apparent. It was racism at its finest.
"I'm Muslim too," I add on, causing my sister further agitation.
"Oh my god, put your voice down," she says. Some people just don't care, so long as they get what they want.
"I don't care. That's fucked up not serving them because they didn't have a mask and then serving you when you didn't either."
"I'm not buying my coffee from here." I step aside and my sister looks over in disappointment. The barista speaks to her co-worker in what sounds like Chinese. Who would've thought something could escalate so fast in a matter of minutes?
"You're such a drama queen. You couldn't have just bought your coffee and not said anything?"
"I could've but why should I after I saw the way she treated those two guys. They're racist. Why would you even buy from them? This area is full of Arabs. Why open a café in an area like this if they're racist towards Muslims?"
"Why does it matter? Just get your coffee and go."
"Everything matters."
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Fear circulated through the media and was spread through word of mouth. Soon, almost everyone was in fear and those who weren't were painted as villains. It was a dark time. I lived out of my car, practically. The truth unveils everything swept under the rug. Covid came like a hurricane sweeping through the earth, indiscriminately. I sat in my car at Clovelly and couldn't quite fathom the fact that everything was perfect there. Almost as if nothing was happening. Laughter, smiles and the sun rays reflecting orange and red off a blue sea.
