SNL 2020

Stuck

Meng: Why are you making this complicated? Sleep. Just sleep. I can go all day without leaving the bed and just sleeping.

With various cities being on the lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, I feel like everyone are going stir crazy with thinking of things that one can do while being stuck on one place...your own house.

I mean, it's all over social media. People asking what they can do to pass time in self quarantine or a lockdown. Everyone is suggesting to everyone that they should get a new hobby. From cooking to singing to playing new instruments. From wood carving to painting to writing poems. From collecting news online to folding papers like Japanese origami...there are some interesting things to choose from.

But for Meng, one of my bestfriends in Heilongjiang where I was born and raised, the answer is not complicated.

Sleeping.

As a warehouse manager, Meng has a physically demanding job. Walking and checking items on a huge warehouse, carrying boxes, arranging stuffs and training new employees are just a few of the many hundred things he needs to do to earn a paycheck for his little family. But my friend never complains. Meng is quite happy with his job and he's great at it that's why he got promoted at his early age.

Xiao, my other bestfriend, and I were proud of Meng and were quite assured that our friend has no complaints on his job. Until now...while we are video chatting with each other. The screen of my tablet are split into three to show that I am talking to Meng and Xiao.

Meng: Are you kidding me? That job was hard. One miscalculations and I had to count everything again. One missteps and a clean up will be ordered. One lazy employee will be the downfall of my team. Coordination and teamwork are the keys for us to keep going all day. Being in the warehouse could be too hot or too cold depending on the weather. That place is monstrous and anyone could get lost on all the things inside it. Working there is no walk in the park.

Me: (unsure) But you love your job, right?

Meng: Of course. I love my job.

Xiao: Plus the pay is not bad. Why, you earn more than I do even if I do overtime everyday plus weekend.

Meng: (grinning) Of course. If the pay is not good, I will leave this job. I have three mouths to feed and your godson's appetite is no joke. Know what...I should be asking you two to contribute on feeding my son. You love him, right?

Me: (dry tone) Yes I love my godson...but I didn't get to enjoy making him. The one who enjoyed making him should be the one to feed him. That would be you.

Xiao: (laughing) I won't have kids.

Meng: Have you asked DaLin about that?

Xiao: (nodding) We won't have kids if we marry. They look like a lot of work.

Me: Me too. I won't have kids.

Xiao and Meng looked at me. I blinked at them.

Me: What?

Xiao: (sighing) I cannot believe that Qing ge has backed out from proposing to you.

Meng: (nodding) Me too. But then again, who can blame the guy for having second thoughts on marrying Dayu?

Me: Hey!

Xiao: (humming) True. I mean, I think we should put a helmet on Qing ge. We don't know, what if one day he decided that even just being Dayu's lover is hassle enough?

Me: Hey! Hey!

Meng: (sighing) I still won't blame him. Imagine all the things Dayu has put him through.