a side of blueberry waffles
Gilbert shuffled his cerulean blue slippers towards the aged stove. The sun glared in through the blinds, taunting him for having overslept. He glared back at it with an air of, I’m unemployed, lay off. Today would be different. Although the mixed craziness from the job dramatics and fear mongering of the media had swallowed their weeks, Gilbert stretched his fingers with a new sense of confidence. Today, he and Sharon would get to relax back into the familiar warm sense of normalcy, to push out the pressures of the outside world and just spend a day being together.
“Gilbert! Will you flip the mail!?”
Gilbert stopped. He straightened his crumpled spine as he listened intently for his wife’s follow up from upstairs. There was none.
A pair of boots pulled on.
A homemade mask with fleece footballs.
A pair of purple dishwashing gloves.
A disinfectant wipe pulled from the container.
The lock on the front door turned.
Gilbert found himself prying open the mailbox at the end of the driveway with a pair of tongs from the grill. His oversized nose and beady eyes pressed as close as socially-distanced-acceptably-possibe to the small tin box, only to see that there was no mail.
The front door closed loudly behind him.
“There was no mail!” he called to his wife upstairs who was now vacuuming.
“Yes. There. Is. In the -” her words disappeared behind the air movement of the vacuum. Driveway?
A pair of boots pulled on.
A homemade mask with fleece footballs.
A pair of purple dishwashing gloves.
A disinfectant wipe pulled from the container.
The lock on the front door turned.
Post a twenty minute spree of pawing through the grass, Gilbert returned a second time through the front door, letting it slam loudly behind him.
He moved into the kitchen without a word. Sharon must be losing her mind.
He retrieved a small box of blueberry waffles from the freezer. Time to settle back in.
Pulling open the microwave, he found a pile of mail sitting in the center of the revolving plate.
As the vacuum continued its movement above him, Gilbert turned to look towards the ceiling.
“Can’t say we didn’t try I guess.”
Tossing the mail onto the counter, he began heating his waffles while pouring himself a large cup of coffee. He’d need it. And as he moved into the living room, pulling the blinds to the top of the window, he took a large gulp of his morning cup, while looking out into the strange, new world he lived in.
-b
May 1, 2020
Photo Credit: Tanaphong Toochinda