Anthology 2

 Dear Future Historian,

My cat has no idea about the pandemic. No clue at all. She is just laying here carelessly, on her cushion-bed, completely unaware that this is the first time that I am living in something you see on the ‘news.’ It’s a bit like being inside a post-apocalyptic movie, hoping it’s not a Tarantino film.

So, you check. Check for little details that distinguish a horror movie from an epic-hero-happy-ending one. You look for ‘genre clues’ around you, and maybe try to direct the scene a bit; hoping again that this might make ‘your movie’ a comedy, or something, anything safe if possible. A bit like a shaman, an alchemist… transforming the metals into gold, the moments into art, shaping the world. But we don’t believe in magic anymore in the 21 century. Except if it is in a Hollywood movie. So, in that sense, it is good that it feels like we are in one; maybe that will remind us of magic again.

Of course, as always, you know exactly how this Covid-madness will end, and where is this going to lead, what the affects will be, my dear future Historian. History is full of catastrophes that people managed to overcome, and even benefit from. But that’s so not the point, is it? I mean it might be for you; you are coming from the survivors of all this. But we are here without your omnipotent knowledge of our future.

And you know what? I don’t know what history is going to conclude about this crisis, but what I do know is that this pandemic has undoubtedly revealed the real heroes around us. My nephew’s girlfriend, working double-shifts at the hospital, all the key workers, all the people that managed to keep working from their homes – with kids, cats and dogs around them - and everyone basically. Everyone. Well, that pandemic will totally connect everyone is a way no event in history ever did before. It’s the first time we can communicate around the globe.

That’s what my cat is missing. The opportunity to communicate, to connect, to read and write stories. As for me, my dear future historian? I am out of stories lately. Writer’s block or whatever. Not the best timing when I study creative writing, but… that’s what this pandemic has taught me. Perspective. Ok, I can’t write anymore, and my mental health is not at it’s best, yet we are ok. And that matters more. And since I promised to take part in this anthology, I will.

Because this pandemic at least has given us the knowledge that the circumstances need not to be perfect for things to keep working. So, people keep working, children keep learning; with masks, with social distancing… and with a lot of will-power, perseverance and care for each other. I hope humankind will use this pandemic to remember that… ‘we are all in this together.’

PS. I love this cat. I love this window. I need coffee.