Quarantine Pet - His Pet

I couldn’t get much work done. I started watching the news and press conferences. It was a nightmare, of course. The message to me was clear: No one really knew what we were dealing with, whether it was a diseased bat eaten by some brave Chinese foodie or a bioweapon that was going to snuff out half the United States. Some estimates had the death toll in the millions.

“Don’t wear a mask,” said a news anchor. “It’ll make you worse by keeping in your germs.”

Now that didn’t make any sense whatsoever. I had seen video after video of people in Asian, and they wore masks all through flu season. Why would they tell people in the U.S. not to wear them? Were they that worried about a shortage? Hell, you could just put a bandana around your face. It pretty much did the same thing.

I searched my desk for a mask or an alternative. The best I could do was an unused handkerchief. It was just long enough to tie it into a bandana and get it around my head. Going into the bathroom, I checked myself in the mirror. I looked like a very high-end bank robber. Was this the new norm for the next few weeks? I had to doubt it. How would the American people react to such changes?

“Excuse me, boss?” Sanjay said, poking his head through the doorway.

“Yeah, what’s up, Sanj?” I asked. “It’s all good.”

“Do you think we could start wearing masks around the office?” he asked.

“Uh, well, you’re free to do so. I’m not, I mean, I can’t make it a requirement for the rest of the team,” I explained. “You freaking out about this? Talk to me. Sit.”

Sanjay sat down. He looked a little shaken. “I’ve been reading a lot of this online,” he explained. “I have relatives back in India, and they’ve been sending me links to Chinese videos. It’s bad, Jack. I mean, this is really bad.”

“What makes you say that?”

“They’re welding people in China inside their apartment buildings,” he claimed. “I’ve seen the videos. Some of them are people that are being rounded up and taken to hospitals. But they fight the police tooth and nail. What kind of people do that if they’re actually taking you to a hospital?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know much about China, Sanj,” I admitted. “What are you saying exactly?”

“The Chinese government is Communist. They have no problem making people disappear,” he explained. “They’re not taking these people to a hospital. There are videos online claiming the crematoriums in China are working non-stop, 24/7 to burn the bodies of this pandemic.”

“Whoa.”

“Yeah, and it gets worse. The government there is doing organ harvesting. Mainly to political dissents, but with the virus, they don’t have a reason to keep those people alive. I’m having nightmares over this.”

“Well, nothing like that will ever happen in America,” I assured him. “But I share your wariness about the Communists. I’m not sure if we can do much.”

“I just wanted to let you know that if the virus comes here, I’m wearing a mask. And if there’s any chance of it, I’m working at home,” he explained.

“That’s fine,” I agreed. “As long as we’re getting the work done, who cares, right?”

Sanjay got up to leave. I couldn’t tell if he felt any better, so I called out to him.

“Sanj,” I said.

He stopped and turned around.

“It’s going to be all right, buddy,” I promised. “We’ll get through this, okay?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Jack.”

Sanjay went back to his office, and I started to think. Maybe I would encourage people to wear masks. I mean, we all had our own offices here, but out on the street, you never know who’d you run into.

The rest of the morning went fine, but by lunch, the news had turned dark. They were going to close down the country. Now I had to get people working from home. Good thing we laid the groundwork. Once again, Kelton was ahead of the curve. We had a lunchtime meeting, but everyone was afraid to order anything. The risk of infection was suddenly too high in everyone’s minds.

It was then that I came up with a brilliant idea. I would need someone to help me slog through all the paperwork at home. And since I couldn’t get temp workers who were secretaries to follow me, why not Sandra? She was the best person for the job, and it would give me a chance to feel her out. Maybe we could start something or at least find out it wasn’t going to happen. I broached the subject at lunch.

“Okay, folks, as predicted, we’re going to be working from home after today,” I explained. “I already had all the paperwork being copied and sent to my place.”

“This is a massive merger,” objected Peter. “How are we going to be able to go through the files from home?”