Reverberation of Conundrum

Chapter 1

It was just another regular quarantined day for Arya.

Getting up from sleep, then trudging her way to the bathroom, freshening up and then having breakfast. The breakfast now shows less variation than normal, life seems to show no variation at all. After breakfast she strolls towards her room, where she'll spend the rest of her day. Such is the constant pattern for her everyday in quarantine.

Much like you and I, Arya is face-to-face with the hard, bitter truth constricting us to our homes. The very truth restricting us from going outside, the very truth changing drastically the landscapes of Earth and the horizons of our very individual lives. Getting up from sleep was so normal, yet now an arduous task.

The ever monotonous sequence of life, the one we dread so much, has been the main sequence for Arya's life. Little do we know how different our lives are to her's.

During the day, she does everything we do, chilling on her gadgets hour after hour, switching from Instagram, to Facebook, to YouTube, and then on an endless loop until here phone is exhausted, yet she plugs it to its charger then scrolls Instagram again.When she's not on her phone, she's on her computer playing online games. All this in pursuit of changing the monotonous cycle her life is caught up against.

By the light of the moon, she gazes upon the enormity of the universe. She wonders how free the stars are, she imagines how free the birds are and what she wouldn't have given to have even a fraction of that freedom.

Arya was determined to let her mind roam free while her body was captive to those 4 walls, she was determined to break free from the shackles that held her in place. Arya dreamed to be one with the stars, one with the galaxy and hold infinite freedom.

As months passed, she almost lost all sight of hope and was now shackled mentally as well as physically. She couldn't take this constraint any longer, she longed to breathe the air of sky, to see the birds fly free, to go somewhere where there's no one but she.

Arya, planned intricately how she would get out of her apartment and onto her terrace evading her parents. As well-planned as the plan, was her flawless execution of it. She made her way up the few steps leading to the terrace, she had waited so long to see, hear, smell and feel freedom , she couldn't wait any longer, the thirst for the open skies was overwhelming her.

As she entered the terrace, she heard music blaring, not from a distance but only from a few feet away, she thought to herself, "Was i oblivious enough to have not noticed all this loud noise before?".

Thinking someone had turned on the music to elevate the mood during the pandemic, she got that out of hher mind. As the whole terrace came into focus, she realized, she wasn't met with only blaring music up on the terrace, there were other people.

She felt elated at first, but those emotions were soon overridden with the stinging thought, "They're up here, but how?".

One of them screamed, "Hey Arya, we thought you'd never come up, well now you're here and that's all that matters!" Her mind grew hazy, yet Arya made out that the people there were having a barbecue party.

But how is this possible?

She exclaimed, "How can you guys have a BBQ party at this time?" One of the boys stared at her quizzically and asked, "What time exactly, Arya?"

"THE PANDEMIC OF-COURSE!", Arya screamed, probably at the top of her lungs.

An older man, probably in his thirties, said softly, "Dear, the pandemic was over ages ago, this is 2021, we already have the vaccine, are you okay love?"

Judging from his tone, Arya thought this was her uncle, but couldn't be quite sure as her memory blurred out all of a sudden. "B-but, how is this p-possible?", she asked timidly as if fearing to be answered.

Before anyone chipped in, all her doubts were momentarily cleared, her mothecameame to the terrace and said in a loving tone, "Hey Arya, you forgot to take your Alzheimer's medication, I brought it upstairs for you."

Arya, at the sight of her mother expected to be scolded, expected to be screamed at for not following the social distancing measures, she heard her mother say something about medication, then blanked out.

Arya is, and shall forever be stuck in an endless loop, which forces her to believe we are always in a pandemic situation and that she has to remain indoors, the conundrum in her brain has little chance to see light at the end of the tunnel. We however, may have the chance to recover from where we are right now, yet Arya shall never face the face of redemption.

So yes, it can always get worse.