CORONA EXPOSURE -- Pt 1
Chapter 1
"So," asked Teri, "are your folks okay?"
"Yes," Angie answered happily, as she hung up the phone and smiled at the older woman. "One week into their Corona self-isolation and no symptoms or anything. Some neighbors dropped off groceries for them, so they're set there too." She laughed, "They apparently even still have toilet paper on the shelves."
"Good to hear people in Kansas are showing more common sense than here," Teri's husband, Mike, said with a mix of disgust and humor. "Our local shelves were nearly empty again when I went shopping yesterday, and still people were bitching about being limited to one package per customer. I mean, I know it's a shitty situation, but really..."
"Oohh," groaned Teri and their son Rob, while Angie laughed.
Then Angie said, "I'm just glad they were able to get back from Europe before all the flights were shut down. Can you imagine being caught overseas and trapped in a foreign hotel? Somehow I think the romance would wear off pretty quick."
"Yeah," said Rob, "that would suck. We were sure lucky to be taking our spring break here with you guys instead of down in Cancun, like we'd thought about."
"And we're very happy about that too," said his mother as she gently stroked his cheek. Then she looked wistfully at Angie. "Although I'm sure your parents would love to have you at home with them."
"Yes," the young woman agreed. "But since Rob was there over Christmas Break and they got to meet you two over Skype, I think they're okay with me being here."
"I know I am," Rob said, reaching an arm around Angie's shoulders and pulling her in to him.
She smiled as she looked up into his handsome face. "Me too."
"Sooo..." Mike ventured, loathe to break in to the love birds' moment. "Have you heard any more from the university about what they're going to do for the rest of the term?"
"Yeah," answered Rob. "It looks like they're scrambling to get all the professors wired up so they can give lectures remotely."
"Most of the big lecture halls already have that capacity," Angie picked up, "so disabled or remote-learning students can take part. Lectures from those rooms will probably pick up on schedule."
"And when they can get the instructors' laptops connected to the school network, then smaller classes will be able to start up again as well," said Rob. "I bet they'd love to have you on staff right now," he told his dad.
"Why's that?" asked Angie, looking from son to father and back again.
"Well, I told you that my dad sets up video security systems around the area, right?"
"Yeah, that's right, I remember," his girlfriend said, looking over to Rob's father. Rob actually took much more after his beautiful mother, but Mike was also quite handsome in his own right. And the eyes, she thought, the eyes were where the two men looked most alike. And right now, Mike's eyes were crinkling around the edges as he listened to his son with a touch of suspicion -- looking out for a teasing jab, Angie guessed. She'd quickly learned the whole family had a healthy dose of schadenfreude.
"What I didn't say is that he's actually a video engineering wizard. He's not only set up video monitoring systems at lots of the banks and other businesses along the panhandle, he also designed software to control video cameras remotely and automatically.
"Wow," Angie said, sounding impressed. Turning to Rob she added, "Now I know where you learned those tricks you used to take over my laptop camera...um". Her voice dropped off awkwardly as she realized what she was saying and to whom.
"Really?" her boyfriend's father said suspiciously.
Rob jumped in quickly, "She means I was able to upgrade her system so her camera looked better and our Skype sessions became more stable."
"Like father, like son," Teri laughed, shaking her head.
"And what about you two?" Asked Rob quickly, trying to steer the conversation away from him and Angie's laptop camera. "How is all this social distancing going to affect your work? I mean, you've already been doing a lot remotely anyway, haven't you, even more than in the past?"
Teri and Mike shared a look, then Mike responded. "Well, you're right. Of course, I don't do the monitoring of installed security systems anymore since I sold most of that business, but I do still work on the primary system as a consultant, and I do all that remotely. I occasionally will check on the physical setups for people I know here in town, but I can do that when the store is closed, so I won't have to deal with many people face-to-face."
"And what about you, Teri?" asked Angie. "Is this Coronavirus lockdown going to hurt your business?"
Teri didn't answer right away and Angie thought the older woman was coloring, almost blushing. Then finally, "No...no, I don't think it will." She shared another look with her husband; an awkward look thought Angie.
"Actually," Teri continued without breaking her gaze with Mike. "I think business might actually go up as more people are stuck at home themselves." Finally, she turned toward Angie, "I mean, you know I offer free-lance editing and illustrating services, right?" The college girl nodded. "Well, maybe with more time on their hands, 'working remotely from home'," she said with quotation marks in her voice, "more people will try writing that story or book they've always dreamed about and will hopefully reach out for editing support."
"I bet you're right, Mom," said Rob. "This whole situation is going to put a significant blip on the human timeline. Obviously it will be mostly from bad effects, like the deaths and the economic costs, but there have also been some good side effects. We've already seen drops in pollution and crime, so why not increases in creativity as a counterbalance?"
"I have two friends who've already set up a bet on whether all this forced together time at home is going to end up in more babies or more divorces," Angie laughed.
Hmm," Mike said with a chuckle. "Somehow I think both of those numbers are going to go up."
Chapter 2
"I can't believe the irony of all this," Mike was saying later to Teri as they cuddled together in their bed. "The lockdowns are damaging so many businesses, but driving our potential through the roof. But I'd much rather everyone else could go back to work and we could just continue growing the way we were anyway."
"And having Rob safe with us is the best thing we could hope for," his wife said, picking up the thread. "But it's really going to make it hard to keep up our normal work, let alone take advantage of the increased demand we're seeing. But I'm so happy to have him here, even if it means we lose some opportunities. Heck, I already feel almost guilty or mercenary to think we could benefit from this crisis."
"I know what you mean," said Mike, "but if you step back and think about it, there's no reason to feel guilty. It's not like we're price gouging people on hand sanitizer or something. Hell, I'd even say we're going to be helping people deal a lot better with their social isolation, loneliness and boredom. "
"Oh," his wife replied, the gloom in her voice finally replaced by her usual humor. "We're providing a community service? Boosting our viewers' mental and emotional health during this difficult time?"
"You got that right," he answered with a wicked smile. His hand reached for one of her breasts, the fingers slowly circling around the large areola. "You have already been boosting a lot of people's emotional health...not to mention their blood pressure." He steepled his fingers over the breast top, gently drawing his fingertips up over the areola and closing softly on her nipple. He kept up the slow massage, sliding his fingers down the sides of the beautiful globe and back up to the hardening nipple as he continued speaking. "But we are going to have to pace ourselves with some of that extra demand. Or actually, you're going to have to pace yourself." He pressed his palm lightly against the nipple, wobbling his hand around like a spinning plate trying to balance on top of a juggler's stick. "Did you see that
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