The Cover Age, Chapter 23

Numbly, she thinks over the short but long history of the pandemic in her life...

In February Georgia was working as a waitress in a restaurant. She was proud to work there, if only because she thought they had a particularly good brioche, which was something she hadn’t even known existed before starting there, but had tried once and fell in love with, and couldn’t stop recommending, couldn’t stop trying to get free examples of, couldn’t stop buying herself, wasting all her money on...Frivolous, she thinks now. Frivolous and savage, although why “savage” she’s only able to think and not comprehend, because her thought process is compromised...

The customers were still flowing in February. You wouldn’t know anything at all was different, but she remembers conversations, little chats, with the odd patron, the occasional angry retorts between diners, concerning this virus that was spreading, a particular favorite who had come in every week but who was suddenly absent, an elderly woman who would sometimes bring Georgia gifts. She remembers talking about it with coworkers, her friends, and thinking nothing of it. One of them, Becky, had a flight coming up in March. Then March came and her flight was cancelled and Becky was upset. Georgia tries to remember why Becky was flying, but can’t.

The customers had already started thinning by then. They slowed to a trickle mid-month, and then ceased altogether. Management pulled the staff together in the kitchen and informed them that the new state protocols meant the restaurant was going to have to shutter temporarily. They didn’t do delivery, management didn’t want to start now. No curbside pickup. No pay.

About a week into this Becky calls Georgia crying. She’s just been let go. Georgia gets her call next. No job, now. No real savings, either. None of this was in the plans when she was making those big life decisions, obviously. Georgia doesn’t call Becky. What’s she going to be able to do anyway? They’re all stuck in lockdown. Georgia’s afraid to leave her apartment. Doesn’t even know how much longer she’ll have an apartment.

All this before she gets Cover back, before...

And for the first time in her life, Georgia feels like a complete failure. She knows she should call Becky. Becky lives with her boyfriend, is stuck with him all day long now. Her boyfriend hits her. Georgia is afraid of what’s happening now. She feels like a failure at every level. She has a little food. She barely eats. She calls her dad. Her mom passed away a few years ago. Her dad is showing signs of dementia, and he’s all alone, too. She feels utterly helpless.

But things can’t possibly get worse, right?