She watched the cat turn herself upside down, trying to get the best drink of water from the daisy fountain. She admired the tenacity of the black feline, who also scraped her paws at the base of the fountain, as if doing so increased the water flow.
She was her pandemic kitty. Like so many others who lived alone, she needed a companion throughout the push me/pull you, insecure and insane days of 2020. She admired the cat's ability to eat the same food every day. To sleep most of the day away and have no apparent stress. She would nuzzle her fuzzy face and say "No thoughts. No brain." Wouldn't that be great? The human brain causes its own problems, and creates issues where none should exist. Cats have the best approach. Hers was named PK for "Pandemic Kitty".
Sam had managed to fill her small house with feline safe plants, every window was its own, small greenhouse. Yet somehow, there was enough sunlight to cheer up the rooms. She only left the house for work, she was a teacher, and found herself fighting feelings of guilt for missing what she called "The Lockdowns". There was something comforting in knowing the whole world had stopped. As much as her colleagues had hated teaching online, she had taken to it. She liked staying home, being able to go to the bathroom whenever she needed, snacking at the computer and knowing that if she so chose, she did not have to wear pants. She dressed every day as if she was leaving for the building, not because mental health experts blasted memes on social media demanding that she do so, but because she had a very real fear of standing up with the camera still on, and her students seeing her Simpsons pajama pants. Most of them barely got out of bed to log on, and they would not have judged her, but she was an adult, and a teacher, and felt that she should at least look like things still mattered.
Now that they were back in person, the real fall out had begun. As the pandemic continued, so did the teacher shortage, and the complete lack of substitute teachers was astounding. She was covering classes for colleagues who had Covid, and noted that most classes were being run at about 35% capacity. Many students had not returned, or were out for Covid protocol, or were sick with Covid, or were waiting for a spot to open online. In her building alone, two teachers and three students had died from Covid since August. There was no reason to complain, as there was no one to complain to. Nobody cared. She figured when the teacher shortage became a teacher drought and parents had to resume teaching their kids at home, somebody would care. But of course, it'd be too late by then.
What was more concerning to her was the increase in the homeless population. She lived in a suburban neighborhood, previously untouched by the homeless. She was not near a shelter or urban hospital, which is where the first tent cities began to pop up. She was now able to identify a regular gentlemen at the west entrance of her grocery store, and a different gentleman at the east entrance. On the weekends, there was a family that would perch at the parking lot entrance. All homeless. All asking for help. She bought extra groceries for them all, and had become regular enough to know their tastes and needs. The family told her last weekend that they had been accepted for housing through a church organization, in Denver. She was relieved. She found that she had been carrying a lot of anxiety about them. There were two toddlers. They had lost their apartment when the husband lost his job. The wife was working at the grocery store, but they couldn't afford rent and child care, and the rents had continued to skyrocket during the pandemic. It seemed counter intuitive to drive up housing costs as the population was losing their jobs. There was also the increase in crime that nobody wanted to talk about. NextDoor was filled with postings from neighborhood Ring videos of cars being broken into, or ransacked, storage sheds, garages, all invaded, some vandalized, one burned to the ground. Videos were posted to warn other neighbors, as the police were either unable or unwilling to investigate.
She watched PK finish her breakfast, made her morning coffee and dressed for work. She had chosen to the mirror Moira Rose as her wardrobe choice this year. Before the pandemic, she had always chosen a 'style' to mimic for the year, mostly for her own entertainment. Students only noticed that she, as they put it, "wore weird work clothes". She had successfully managed a year of Jeff Goldblum sweaters and bold prints, and a year of Maude tunics and pant suits. It gave her something to focus on. There was a colleague of hers in the math department who did the same thing with hats. She had cloche hats, top hats, bowler hats, hats with feathers. They were awesome. The trick with Moira was she did not own enough wigs, and so would have to get up early to create a hair style befitting the character, and occasionally borrow a feathered chapeau from math.
Once her hair was finished, she kissed her kitty and walked to the garage door. Her home was built in the 1970's and had an attached garage with a door leading from the house to the garage through the kitchen. She opened the door to discover that her car tires were flat. In the dim light, she could tell all four were flat, and the front tire immediately in view had clearly been slashed. Yet the garage door was closed. Before she could suss out how that was possible, a dark figure moved on the driver's side of the car door. Without one swift motion, she hit the garage door opener and said "Out. Now." As the garage door rose, the figure scuttled away.
She sighed. She closed the garage door and turned back into the house. She closed the door between the garage and kitchen, dialed her insurance agent. She had been calling him a lot of late, not just about her car, but her storage shed had been broken into and vandalized, and her car had been rummaged through twice while in her driveway, and the second time they had slashed the upholstery. She had cleaned out the garage so her car could fit in it.
She texted the principal's secretary to let her know she wouldn't be in. She knew that by the time she had her car towed to the tire store, she would be there all day due to their staffing issues. She was supposed to cover classes for two other teachers today, and she knew this would cause a ripple effect. She had had to Uber in twice this month already, due to the break ins and damage, she did not have another Uber ride in her budget, but she did have sick days. She hated causing more problems for her colleagues, but this was not under her control.
She sat in a chair in her living room with her cell phone in one hand, and PK jumped up on her lap and purred. She seemed happy that her owner would be around more today.
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