Love In The Time Of Pandemic

Chapter 4

As Gordon and the others walked around the backyard, they yelled out with joy at all of the new fruits and vegetables they kept on finding.

"It's a bounty here," Gordon kept on yelling with surprise. "We are living in a land of abundance." He would say this and then look at me and grin, with his hands grasping some turnips or beets, laden with dirt from the loamy topsoil that sustains all life on this planet.

My mother used to tell me stories of the past when human beings would worship the soil that gave them all of this food, and the sun that was able to sustain life on Earth through the simple process of photosynthesis. They even worshipped the moon and the rocks. I used to hear her speak of these worshippers and I thought them all a bit kooky, to be honest. How could they be so foolish? I used to think. It isn't the sun, or the soil, the moon or the rocks, that need to be worshipped, but the technology and the smarts that is actually able to turn such inert items into something usable, something consumable. That's what my old, foolish self believed.

I don't believe that anymore. I looked at the sun almost setting now, and the soil that lined the knees and the hands of the three boys who were having way too much fun digging into it. And all of it just made me feel that we are kind of superficial to all of this.

Even without the technology to sustain it, and the mind to make it happen, the soil and the sun, the wind and the plants, were on their own able to produce such a bountiful crop. We weren't even necessary for the process. Yes, my mother might have planted the seeds in anticipation of such a day. But what if she hadn't. I believe there would still have been some kind of crop here, with or without our presence.

Luckily enough, we are able to partake in such a miracle. The smell of the loamy soil was so strong in the air that it kind of made me nostalgic.

"Hey, can you grab that bag for me there?" One of the guys said, I should really pay more attention to names, I thought. I nodded, and rushed to grab the bag for him. He stuffed the backpack that he had bought with him, with the non-fragile fruits and vegetables.

He grinned at me. "Your mother was one of the good ones, huh?" I nodded again. For some reason, speech was a problem for me right now. Maybe they realized that. Gordon sensed it, and that's why he just left me alone to deal with whatever was going on with me.

I wasn't just feeling nostalgia, but overwhelming longing. I wanted my mother back by my side. I wanted it so badly that I feared I would start seeing her everywhere. Like those half-crazy, half-senile veterans who used to roam about the streets when I was still a kid. My mother would tell me that they sacrifices their brains and bodies for us, so we should be respectful towards them. But instead of respect, all I felt for them was fear. I was afraid that I would be sitting in my room one day, with the curtains open and their face would suddenly appear in the window, scaring my life out of me.

There was no need to worry, I told myself. My mother was far away from here. If she wasn't, she would come visit me. There was no doubt about that in my mind. I might not be the smartest tool in the shed, but I knew that my mother loved me, and that she would make time to visit me, no matter what else was going on in her life.

"This backpack is full. Grab me another one." Gordon said to me. And I rushed to grab the other bag. As I did so, I noticed that someone was peeking at us from behind the backyard fence. Was it Gimpy? Was he back to seek revenge for having to run away in the middle of the game earlier?

I squinted at the person. It was dark, and my night vision wasn't really the best. I couldn't really tell who it was.

Gordon said, "Hurry, woman, we don't have all day." I balked at my delay, and rushed to hand him the bag. I didn't have time to be staring off into space. There was work to be done. As I held the bag open for him, so he could stuff some more fruits into it, I couldn't help turning around to stare at the eyes that stared at us. It was too dark to tell their colour, but I could see that they were glittering even despite the darkness.