Divine Intervention at a Supermaret

JOLENE

The lack of crowds was one advantage of a deadly outbreak, thought Jolene.

Ever since she was a little girl, she didn't enjoy being around strangers, but her chronic shyness had dovetailed nicely with her love of reading. By the time that she was in university, she had decided to pursue the study and teaching of literature rather than find a more lucrative field.

The greatest challenge for her when she became a professor wasn't the mastery of the material, but speaking to a crowd of students. Even five years into the role, she hadn't quite adjusted to the demands of public speaking, and that brought her to another advantage of the outbreak from Wuhan: video lectures. She didn't need to face her audience. She didn't even need to go out into public except to buy food and other necessities.

Her apartment was nearly grocery-free that day, making a trip for necessities a necessity, and that was why she found herself pushing a cart through the produce area of the supermarket.

It was while examining a bunch of bananas that another woman approached her, coming dangerously close to breaking the two-meter rule (which Jolene secretly hoped would remain the standard after the outbreak subsided). Jolene decided to ignore the intrusion.

"Oh, I hope that the supply chain for bananas doesn't break down," the woman said. "My daughter loves bananas. Do yours like them too, or are they more for you?"

Jolene was puzzled enough by the question to scrutinize its source. The stranger was about ten years older than Jolene, but she was still attractive enough and had a confident, almost aggressive attitude about her that Jolene had never possessed. That didn't elucidate the woman's question however.

"... I'm sorry, my what?" said Jolene.

"Your children!" the woman said with a smile. "Do they like bananas too? My husband hates bananas, but maybe I shouldn't assume that yours is the same."

"Oh ... I'm sorry, I don't have a husband ... or children. The bananas are for me. I like them."

"Oh! I'm the one who's sorry! I thought you looked old enough that you must be a mom, but I guess not everyone has the energy for that."

"No ... no, I guess not. Well, I hope you can keep finding enough bananas for your daughter." Jolene abandoned her selection and chose the easiest bunch to reach.

She was just turning away when another stranger broke into the exchange. "Good," the second stranger said. "Now that your threads have crossed, I can deal with both of you simultaneously."

This woman was around Jolene's age and dressed in red from head to toe, with vivid red hair. Jolene immediately knew that it was no mundane fashion choice however — the Red Woman seemed subtly uncanny to Jolene's eyes. It was the feeling that MacBeth must have had when he was confronted by the Weird Sisters, or Bottom when he encountered the fairy queen Titania.

Jolene felt her hair standing on end. "

'I am a spirit of no common rate'

," she whispered.

"I assure you, you are quite common to me," the Red Woman said, waving her hand. "Your names, children."

"Jolene Johnson," Jolene said at once.

"Cassandra Clark," the first stranger said.

"We'll begin with you, child," the Red Woman said with an air of weariness, indicating Jolene. "Explain your plight."

Jolene didn't enjoy discussing herself, and generally didn't enjoy discussing anything with strangers in a supermarket, but her tongue seemed to be beyond her control. "I ... I was born in this city, and I'm a Professor of Literature at the university. I live alone ... I've never had many friends, and I don't have a boyfriend or a husband. My brother, Joseph, says that I'm married to my books. I do love them, but they aren't as fulfilling as they used to be."

"Well then, you should start dating," Cassandra said. "There are plenty of good men — or women — out there!"

"Maybe, but I can't seem to connect with people," Jolene said. "I think maybe some guys have asked me out, but they wanted to take me to bars, and parties, and stuff. So, I said 'no', and it was only later that I realized that maybe it was supposed to be a date. Or maybe not — I don't know."

"Well, you need to go for what you want!" Cassandra said. "You have to meet lots of people and pick the best one! What are you looking for?"

"I don't know," Jolene admitted. "Joseph has his own farm (or is it a ranch?) outside of the city, just on the other side of the university. He's been wanting me to see it for years, and I finally went there to visit his family for Christmas, and I think I want something like that. He has a wife, two kids, and all kinds of animals, but it's still somehow quiet and peaceful. Meanwhile, here I am in an apartment where I can't even have a dog. Telling me to 'social distance' is redundant."

"That's because you aren't really trying though!" Cassandra said.

"Your turn," the Red Woman said to Cassandra.

"Oh, my life has been great!" the older woman said cheerily. "My husband and I started a retail business together ten years ago, and it's been really successful — people love it. We're just getting to the point where our employees can operate without much supervision, so we're going to open an ice cream shop next door. I think there's a market for it — at least in the summer — and maybe we'll make it more of a cafe in the winter. Darren — that's my husband — he doesn't think the space'll work for that, but we won't know until we try of course."

"Of course," the Red Woman said, sounding even wearier.

"My kids — I have a son and a daughter — they help out at the restaurant whenever they can, but they're in university these days," Cassandra said. "They're just great. When they get their degrees, we're going to put them to work on some business ideas that we have. I think Oliver is just like his father, and Darren says that Maya is like a younger version of me. We're just a really entrepreneurial, just all-around adventurous family."

"Of course."

Jolene guessed that Cassandra hardly needed an excuse to ramble on about herself and her families under most circumstances, but she could tell that the Red Woman had done something to encourage it. That puzzled Jolene though. It was clear to her that the Red Woman somehow knew all about Cassandra (and probably about her) without asking, so what was the point of the conversation?

"And I think that's why the situation with COVID-19 is so bad for us," continued Cassandra. "We like to be active and fit pretty much all the time. I mean, normally, I hit the gym, I do yoga, things like that, but now I can't, right? So, I'm thinking: God, do we really have to 'shelter in place'? Is that really a thing? We're cooped up in the house, and we're so bored! I need more stimulation than that! I need to solve problems!"

"Done," the Red Woman said, waving her hand. "But isn't the situation between your husband and daughter a big enough problem for you?"

The older woman went pale and her smile wavered. "W-what do you mean? We have a great relationship in our family — lots of great relationships! We're all very ... very close."

"Of course," the Red Woman said, smiling.

"Well ... I should be going," Cassandra said. "I need to finish up here and hurry home. You know, 'Shelter in place', and stuff like that!"

"Wait!" Jolene spoke up, surprising herself. She caught Cassandra by the sleeve before the older woman could leave. "What's wrong? Something's wrong, isn't it? What changed?"

Cassandra trembled, as though she were in conflict with herself, but it seemed that she was still compelled to speak. "Three days ago, I saw my husband standing in the hallway outside of the bathroom. He was smiling at something, and then he stepped inside the room. I was curious to see what it was, so I snuck up behind him and looked past his shoulder, and ... it was nothing, it was ... it was ..." Cassandra began to tremble again.

"Yes?" the Red Woman said.

"It was our daughter!" Cassandra exploded with a sob. "Maya had just gotten out of the shower, and she had a towel, but she was holding it open, like she was showing off for Darren. She was naked, and she was smiling, and she was showing him her body! And, when she saw me, she closed the towel really fast and pretended that nothing happened!"

Jolene didn't understand what was happening, but she knew that she wanted to defuse the situation. "I'm sure that it was nothing!" she said. "You said it yourself: you have a very close relationship in your family, so they were probably just ... in an awkward situation, and they were trying to make a joke out of it!"

The effort did little to cheer Cassandra. "I-I never thought Darren would be like that, that he would look at his own daughter that way ... but I know that smile, so ... and I didn't think that Maya would ever try to seduce her father, but ... I SAW her doing it."

"I'm sure it's not like that," said Jolene.

"I have to get home and keep an eye on them!" Cassandra said. "There are all these ... pheromones in the air between them, and I don't like it! And I've been thinking: Darren said Maya's like a younger version of me, so what if he decides to leave me and run away with the younger version? What if this stupid 'social distancing' means I lose my husband AND my daughter?!"

Jolene turned to the Red Woman. The stranger looked more unearthly than ever, and she thought that she saw that red hair flicker a little, like a flame. "I don't know who you are, but you're ..." Jolene tried to choose her words carefully, "very wise and influential, aren't you? You can fix this, can't you?"

"If I were to reverse my changes to her life, it would mean her death," the Red Woman said. "And she would not be the only casualty, so she and her family should thank me. And she did ask for more stimulating problems at home. Be careful how you entreat the gods."

"Well, I don't know about any of that, but I have to go," Cassandra said, pulling out of Jolene's grasp. "It was ... nice meeting you ladies."

Cassandra pushed her cart away with an aura of anxiety that belied the confident energy that had annoyed Jolene minutes ago.

However, a new memory pressed against that one. Jolene's recollection of an aggressive Cassandra, friendly but a bit pushy, was overwhelmed by the image of a dejected woman who happened to be shopping at the banana display at the same time as Jolene, and it was only the arrival of the Red Woman that provoked Cassandra to speak.

The memories twisted and clashed, and it hurt to examine them too closely.

"Now, what shall we do with you?" the Red Woman said to Jolene.