Just thought I would drop a line to give you some good news for a change. The Plague that has devastated the planet has been vanquished! Life is going back to normal!

I had a premonition that something was up when I crutched myself into the health complex yesterday. There were these white things, rectangles of fuzzy texture piled in neat stacks on what had been empty shelves at the check-in desk. I had no idea what they were, since I have only been swimming for a year or so. I asked, after assuring the clerk I had no additional symptoms. He said they are things called “towels.”

I took one to go with the long discolored tan thing I have been bringing from home since last May Day. I don’t know why I took the new one. I have left my towel in the locker room inadvertently, and it never gets washed or folded in my absence. I had no idea what to do with the white square thing if I got it damp. After disrobing and donning my aquatic gear there were more surprises when I got to the pool deck.

There are two rooms adjacent to the pool with imposing steel and glass doors. They have never been opened in my time in the water, but yesterday, they not only opened, but human beings actually walked through them. I wasn’t sure what they were, but one seemed to billow muddled eddies of dry air, while the other seemed to produce some sort of steam.

I assume the doors are to some sort of health equipment, but I put that aside in amazement. At the distant end of the pool, across the aquatic walking track, there is an area bounded with a short white tile wall. I can’t see into it from water level, but the sign atop the tile has read “Closed” for at least a year.

I asked the lifeguard about the matter when she walked by after adjusting her tunes on the overhead speakers. “Is that thing open? What is it?”

She smiled a bit ruefully. “It is the Hot Tub. Now we have to watch it.”

Normal seems like it could be more work for some of us. Personally, I was going to watch it anyway, since it is in my field of view for about half of the thirty or forty turns I normally do in the deep end. But I wasn’t going to offer. Something bigger was clearly going on. When eventually I dragged myself back to the farm, I discovered our Governor was on the television.

He wasn’t wearing either of the costumes that briefly made him famous, but I was willing to give him a try anyway. He looked directly into the camera, clearly speaking to me personally, and said he was going to open up the State again on the 15th of June, keeping me in confinement for my (something or other-ish birthday. He said liberty was a “go,” provided we are all vaccinated and prepared to wear masks when he wishes, indoors or out.

Good call, though it seemed he liked being able to tell us if one was not enough, regardless of what day in June he feels like. So if no one else has told you, the Plague is over! Everyone is free to be in the Hot Tub again, just like the old days! I have no idea what I am going to do with the time, though.

I am already wet.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com