Carl's personal life had taken a hit during the pandemic.
He had broken up with his partner at the beginning of December 2019. At that time he thought that making it through Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's Day would be the hardest part of the breakup.
But after surviving all the holidays, the pandemic hit and he faced lockdown by himself.
He was lonely in his apartment. He learned how to make sourdough bread. He took up watercolour painting. He read all the books that he had left unread.
And then the depression hit.
He and his friends decided to form a 'bubble'. They agreed to only ever see each other. It worked out for a little while until one of them started having an affair with their downstairs neighbour. Then the whole thing fell apart.
For a little while Carl found some solace in the online group activities the company organized for everyone. Back then the company's attitude was that they were all in it together and everyone needed to maintain connection to continue to be productive. Online trivia games and virtual escape rooms were organized. On Fridays there were virtual after-work drinks. It was nice. Carl kept in touch with his old work friends and even made new work friends.
Carl became friends with Brad from QA and they became a force to be reckoned with on the virtual trivia nights. After the trivia games were over, they'd call each other and keep talking. Sometimes they'd even talk over supper or watch a movie together.
Carl had enjoyed hanging out with Brad.
But then lockdown started to lift, and the company stopped organizing the online events. Some of Carl's coworkers tried to keep them going, but everyone's workload increased, as did their number of meetings, and eventually the online events stopped.
Carl tried to keep in touch with Brad, but it was hard to do.
Now he checked in with Brad every few weeks. He didn't even know on which days Brad was in the office. Brad could have even been in on a Monday, but Carl would never know because he never knew where anyone was sitting.
YOU ARE READING
Missing Things - FIRST DRAFT
General FictionA first draft of a mess about a guy, a pandemic, and an empty office. It's about missing things. One of the things that's missing is a plot. As I said, this is a first draft and it's here for funsies. At some point it'll be taken down because I'll w...
