Sally says...

User's Guide to a Pandemic

by Taha Siddiqui

In the midst of a lockdown, everyone is losing their minds. Along with their minds, they are losing something far more important than anything else, their patience. Although some count this time as a blessing when they can slack off and treat each day as a Sunday, some unfortunate ones cannot. They just cannot comprehend with not leaving their comfort spaces. Locked inside a cage and who knows who has the key. Maybe the authorities, their mums and dads, or maybe just themselves.

In a small spaced two storey unit, there is a similar occurrence. The creaking noise of a now, dull wooden floor on the upper unit can be heard. The noise turned into steps, then into thuds. The loud noise could be heard by anyone near the property. It seemed to be in a cycle, as if someone was walking in a circle, or the whole marching band is doing a circuit on the top floor.

It wasn't a circuit. It was just her, walking in a circle with her hands tied to her back. She just got the news and she clearly is not having a blast.

'This is so LAME! Why can't they just lock the virus instead?'

Clearly, she has not one idea of the situation, but she seems confident in herself. She continues to pounce back and forth, now in a more aggressive manner. She does that for a while now and Sally, her goldfish is now scared in her bowl. She eventually gives up on the idea of rebelling as there is no one to rebel to, as everyone is taking a break on reality.

With a quick movement, she throws herself onto her bed. There, she lies, sweating and wheezing. She lies there as if she just had run a marathon in the scorching heat outside. But she was inside, all this time. Her phone is buzzing now, with lots of notifications and texts from people alike, all having the same thoughts.

'When is this gonna end? Are we gonna be stuck in our homes forever? What is there to even do?'

She glances over all her socials and it just bores her. They give her the information she already has, not what she needs. This pandemic has led her to ignore her almost two hundred followers to be left on seen and not heard of. With nothing to do and care for on the internet, she just lies there, staring at her ceiling covered with glow in the dark stars, which are not glowing anymore.

Upon looking at her ceiling she realizes one obvious thing, and that is her room. She has not even looked at the stuff she put up a while ago. All those writings on the walls, multiple shades of colour on one wall, those posters of chic bands all over the room, along with her own pieces of art. The room definitely deserves a spot in the art gallery but due to this 'stupid virus', the possibility of it happening is thin.

She stares at her room blankly, until a bright light strikes her blind. It was the sun, teasing her through her blinds on the window. She went up to look outside and to her surprise, everything was 'dead'. With losing all hope of even stepping outside, because there is nothing to even do outside, she gives up. Bored and defeated, she looks forward on to accepting the fact that 'it is what it is' and sighs.

Suddenly, a bright reflection catches her attention again, and it is no sun teasing her directly, it is through the glowing golden fins of her gold fish. Her Sally, whom she loves deeply is staying put in her small globe filled with water. She finds it amusing how her fish is just suspended in water her whole life. With nothing to do, except to move around any space she gets or to consume whatever she gives her.

It is amusing that how a fish, who is meant to be free to roam in the depths of the oceans, just accepts its fate to live in a glass bowl. She does not speak but she can hear her. She knows how it feels to be encased and caged because she has been in a 'lockdown' her whole life. Sally gives her hope and to get over the fact that she has to stay in the luxury of her home, where she can do countless productive and inspiring things.

She is given the choice that she can use this time as something to look back on when all this is over, or not to do anything at all. Her respect for Sally has risen and converted into hope and the urge to do something out of her potential, just like Sally.