A Grateful Train Of Thoughts And The COVID-19

     So, I was in a public utility vehicle, and sitting in front of me was an elderly lady who, out of the blue, started coughing non-stop. It shouldn’t really be ominous as a human being coughing is as ordinary as a dog barking, except that the raging news that day was the increasing number of people getting sick with Covid-19. Yes, that terrifying disease that came from Wuhan, China. I thought I was fairly safe because I was more than a meter away from her, that the droplets from her would not reach me. But surreal as it was, her coughing became violent and aggressive by the second, her body being rocked by it. It was as if her mission that day was to infect half of the universe and make Thanos proud. I wasn’t wearing an infinity stone, er, I mean, a mask; nothing would protect me from the invisible but massively dangerous droplets that were flying from her mouth like daggers to us, her fellow passengers.

      I’m doomed, I thought, I could alight, yes, but it was probably too late as hordes of droplets were now inside my body, so I decided to just close my eyes and prepare for the incoming slow and painful death that would arrive in the next few days. I silently uttered a little prayer, and thought of giving thanks to awesome people who have been kind to me and who’d always be nice to me, foremost of them my siblings and their children, who, incidentally, of course, are my nephews and nieces, all beautiful beacons of light to my oftentimes darkened life. I’d rather be infected with the deadliest virus than to live without them.

     Thank you also to my other relatives who have been nice to me, my cousins, my niblings from them, my aunts and uncles, the few friends who keep in touch, the socmed friends who always 'like' my Facebook posts no matter how inane they are, the people who read my Wattpad stories and Amazon book, the fellow PUV passengers who willingly help me give my fare to the driver, the drivers who take me to my destinations safely, the garbage men who regularly collect our trash, the editors who approve my stories, the security guards who’d smile and open their establishment’s door for me even though I'd only take a piss, the bosses who keep giving me things to do, those that I'm usually passionate about, and pay me for it, the delivery men who bring us our food unadulterated, the sales people who enthusiastically entertain my questions about their products, to the waiters and chef who happily serve and deliciously cook our food, the man who punctually delivers our newspapers and lastly, special mention the Shih Tzus of my sister that eagerly play with me whenever we visit them. Thanks to all of them, they make my life a little tolerable and all inspire me and color my life and make my heart light and and make me not lose my faith in humanity—

     My grateful train of thoughts was interrupted when the man beside the coughing elderly lady started sneezing.

     Gesundheit! And that’s it, this man will provide the additional deadly droplets in my immune system, the final nail in my coffin, my life would now really end. So long, I would always remember all of you whenever I talk to  angels in heaven, and please, don't be sick. Ingat lagi! 

     Four days later, I’m, still okay, no signs that I’m sick. The elderly lady and the man beside her probably weren’t really infected. I was probably just paranoid and an overacting judgmental a—hole.