Quarantines

Quarantines

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Mayer sits impatiently in the ambulance asthe driver smokes Panda cigars casually by putting his left hand outside of thecar with the most comfortable gesture one could possibly imagine. All theleaves from last autumn vanishes to somewhere in this hot and wet summer. Itturns out that unexpected things do happen. He was just about to attend BioTech’sseasonal medical conference and college Frierson happened to be positive.

       The ambulance made a noise in front ofthe gas station, and I never know why I imagine in a second for an explosion.It could possibly be accomplished by the Panda cigars if the workers happen tooverlook, requiring no more than a slight slice of hot ash that smells as thesame as the ink on thousands of lung cancer diagnosis I have ever seen.

       Frierson does not have to be quarantined,he recovered because the virus vanishes as leaves. I could think ill of him andthe whole system and the ambulance and the summer and the small place I wouldprobably live in for a week and mom’s everyday call at any time when I do notthink there will be a call, but I should not think ill of Frierson. I was tiredof making such a judgement because he was so nice and helped me to repair asegregator.

“…and…” the driver talks. I could not makeout.

I get some time on the ambulance to look around.The bed looks efficient, but by no means new and shiny. There are closetscontaining ices, utensils, and two human body plastic bags in the lowest one. Ithink the college professors in my hometown will seldomly tell their studentswhy we should separate a couple from car accidents into two bags, and they donot know such two bags can even cover a piano if used together.

“There are different levels of quarantines”I think at the back of the car. I would not be sitting here if I can afford aself-quarantine, declaring a free of governmental help. There might also be a sensitivemiddle-aged entrepreneur to set up companies for quarantine services, and ninetypercent of the cost can be covered by insurance. Frierson did not use his villato quarantine himself. I do not know why he enjoyed sitting in an ambulance yetrejected everyone who invites him to join the driving team, even the guy whopromised to give him a new Benz ambulance was not out of the list.

“Arrived.” the driver stopped the car at aplace looks like the same city half century ago, which makes me wonder if I canfirmly decide on living richly in the past, but the driver opens the door andstand aside.

       The room is small, but efficient forworkers to have a rest at any day of the year and at any year in history. Ihave spent my first week as usual as I could keep. Nothing special happens, andthe conference agents called me once, asking if I want to hold another onelater with no additional cost.

“And a huge compensation, Mayer,” the agentbecame excited, “they are not asking you to do anything more. It should befairly decent.” I thanked him for everything and told him my intentions. Itshould be pointed out that my agency is always patient at me. This time he madeless insistence and asked if I need some help. I politely declined.

For a long while I have to change mindsetsand definitions of language on a regular basis to cope with people, includingcustomers and patients, so I am left with one of the latest egos, and have tokeep it, examine it, and topple them like smashing volleyballs, but Friersonand several friends always call me on a daily basis.

“Did you enjoy your quarantine?” asked byFrierson with a noisy background.

“Yeah, but I have to stay for another week,maybe month.”

“I am assigned to change the water of yourfish tank and Falk looks healthy, nothing special. Well, enjoy the holiday,buddy!!” Frierson said loudly.

He always like telling jokes, I thought.There can be people that make people want to keep balance at any time andpeople trying to make people laugh and jump into the ocean waves.

Each morning I am awaked by the plastic bagof food at the door. Rains are rare in the summer, but I hope there could be arain, at least make things look different. Yes, a monochrome of raining will bemore colorful to the life I am at. I am so glad that there will be no need tocook, but only deliveries like arrows loaded with food packages. The mealtimeis way more regular and calculated by medical suggestion.

       I rethink of Frierson several times onweekends of quarantine. His son has not been able to graduate from college andFrierson’s wife did not buy it. After several days of arguing, Friersonpromised that he can help his son into graduate school because undergraduatemight also be too costly. He was not telling the joke, probably the first time.He succeeded. I have to say he had a nice family. Last summer they missed thevacation to Italy due to the pandemic, but I hope his son can get back to himthis time.

      The ambulance buzzes down the floor. Hopethat is not for me. In these days I picked up a hobby of thinking, not as thesame as undergraduate swallowing, but more like a surgery. Operations are theone of the most enjoyable and proud part of doctor’s life. Mathematicians willkill people by miscalculations, but they will not feel quite guilty as watchinga patient losing vital signs gradually and you could do nothing but keepworking on the same problem where most of the operators would never want to beopen and brave and helpful at this time.

       Sometimes you have to shut the wholebuilding, not only the door, to feel the serenity of holidays. I think overthis sentence and associate this with my quiddity of sleeping—I cannot fallasleep easily when there are people in the building. I like the feeling ofsleeping on the whole building. A building! And hope there will be calls todrag me to help another patient with stroke.

       It feels strange also to get out of theshoes, and only put self into at my shoes, which is never used since I cannotget out. I do not think there is a lock on the door or cameras on the wall, butI am more reserved to reading and watching local televisions and thinking aboutproblems in a showering after eating an apple and another after solving theproblem.

       There are people brave and coward, orjust people with same braveness with some of them more willing to change theirshoes’ color, texture, and size accordingly to the world. I have seen such anexample only once in an operation at Bonn where Tanya is giving a child twicethe dosage of epinephrine.

       Someone knocks at the door, and I am putinto a different car. The field of biology has changed so much that people canproduce protein simply by using carbon monoxide and waters, which isfascinating to photosynthesis analysts. Frierson is with his son and wife toBonn, so Falk is taken cared by another college, or died probably. I have nevertried to do surgeries to a goldfish.

       Falk did not die. She is saved by Kukuwho constantly scratches off the alga. I moved a television and a piano fromthe recreational center to downstairs. I hope to find a way of treating diseases,so I politely declined several surgery conferences and started to allow morebraveness and time to the research.

The barrier to a lifestyle that one holds isone of the definitions of quarantine. I am quarantined into my workplace again.Things could be open and closed at the same time, depending on reasons afterreasons, but there should be some predictable events, such as eating noodlestomorrow or letting Falk some noodle tomorrow.