Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Three Hundred Twelve

The weather has turned colder after two and half weeks of warm days. But the days are still sunny and bright, the temperature mild for winter. We could not have asked for a more pleasant winter to help us endure the dark, shut-in days of the grippe reborn. There is still a great deal of winter left unfortunately and I am sure that colder days are still to come.

Last week we went into the mountains to spend a few nights in a swanky old hotel, a remnant from the first days when Those Who Came were claiming this country. A strange experience in the midst of the dread lord’s march. The hotel, a vast castle of a place, was largely empty. We had our corner to ourselves and saw only a handful of people the few times we ventured out. Mostly we stayed inside our room, ordering room service and enjoying the glorious mountain views. We sat by a fire outside and drank hot chocolate, wandered the grounds under starlight, and did not have to look at the same walls and views we have had for these last long months.

It was a nice break from what has become a tiring routine. My love, especially was feeling exhausted by work and being trapped by this endless moment. Cabin fever really, a malady that is certainly real in these parts. Among Those Who Came in the early days, after the bitter exile of Those Who Went Away, there were many lone trappers and settlers who went a little mad over those long and lonely winters when the light died and the snow and cold did not relent. It is decidedly not a malady of Those Who Went Away, not then and not now, for they understood what was necessary to survive in these parts and that was a community. Those of us Who Came are still learning that lesson.

We watched the sunrise together, coming over the mountains, the peaks moving from shadow to light, bathed in red and yellow hues, and for a moment we were held still, apart from all the dreariness of the world. Only for a moment, but that was enough.