metro

Jeff found a seat on the Washington DC Metro. Doors closed, and the train initiated motion. A woman took the seat across from him; she wore a face mask patterned with a vibrant floral pattern. There was a moment of silent solidarity between them, as Jeff felt the fabric of his own mask fluctuate in temperature through his every balmy breath.

When Jeff lived in Shanghai years ago, he encountered many citizens who wore protective masks in public. A native of DC, Jeff wondered what the citizens of Shanghai knew that he didn’t know. He was persistently curious if the mask was an effective measure to help the wearer from contracting disease. He sometimes thought that the mask emblemized paranoia. In a sense, all these feelings stirred subtle alienation.  

On the train this morning, Jeff saw something that he had never seen before. Because of his newfound enlightenment regarding the power of this tool—he now knew that the mask meant something else. A mask didn’t prevent the user from contracting disease, it protected others from the spread of disease. In these fleeting moments, Jeff subverted his own memory and erased a perception born out of naivety. Jeff looked to this woman across from him with a sense of hallowed unification. 

In silence, their eyes connected, and he could feel her budding smile through the glint in her eyes.

-m

April 30, 2020