Of Swine and Men
He was finally allowed to leave his home, go to work, to school, wherever he had to go. By all means he was cured, no more headache, no more fever, no more sore throat. He carried the virus still, but it could do no more harm to him, there was enough to stay three weeks at home. However, there were others out there who were luckier than him and did not meet with that salesman who just came back from the UK, bringing the virus with him and who so generously distributed it. This was the thought that made him wear one of those masks on his face with that disinfecting agent on it. It did not smell bad or anything, it was not uncomfortable. Still, he felt like wearing a gas mask on his face. He went down to the subway station as he always did when he was going to work. He saw the other people staring at him but did not care. It is for you I am wearing this, he thought and went on. In a matter of minutes the train was there, he climbed in the middle car and hung on to one of the bars. His travel took usually more than 20 minutes, so he tried to plan his first day at work since his sick leave. It did not go really well, because in the small, confined place he could hear the other passengers whispering about him and his mask. He heard them say how that idiot wearing that mask is a hypochondriac and anyway what is the big fuss about this new virus. Youngsters, he thought, who are looking for a laugh and picked on the strange guy with the mask. He then heard two old ladies talking to each other and saying to each other how they did not get their medicine for free, surely because that guy in the mask is a doctor or something and is stealing from the hospital masks. Poor old ladies, he thought, they must be desperate with those small pensions of theirs. However, he soon realized that every single person on that car is staring at him, and they are obviously talking about him, not just the young or old. There were two very elegant ladies chuckling to each other while looking at him, middle aged people going to wherever they were going, and one guy in his mid thirties wearing a banker’s suit even shouted at him: go by car if you’re so afraid of catching something. He looked around at all those mocking faces and then slowly took his mask off and sneezed.
Attila Andrasy
06/11/2009
Rate this article
My mother just told me a story. She was shopping in the supermarket and she witnessed a dialogue between a man and an old lady. The man was sneezing loudly all over the bread counter while he was picking the best bread possible (touching all the others obviously). The old lady was daring enough to bother him, trying to make him aware of the swine flu & all, simply suggesting him to adjust his behaviour accordingly. Now, here's the best part, the man replied: "Anyway, what do you want? You have lived enough, haven't you?"