Will This Fog Last Forever?
An elegy for the future.
"I forgot how hard it is to breathe in these things."
While the nurse fussed with the earloop mask I'd given her, I said nothing. Sometimes an awkward silence conveys everything you need. After all, we both knew she was still fumbling with the thing. She hadn't even put it on yet, and she was already talking about how hard it was to breathe. It was becoming clear she was only familiar with baggy blue surgical masks. "Which way does it go on?"
"The nosepiece fits on your nose."
She finally got it on.
She looked at me. "You're not sick, are you?"
"No," I said. "I know masks freak people out now. I've gotten used to them."
"Ah," she said. Finally, she backtracked. "You're trying not to get sick."
"That's the plan."
The nurse drew my blood and took my vitals. Maybe it dawned on her during our interaction that it's actually not hard to breathe in a quality mask at all. Sometimes, the reality of an experience does more to make your case than words. After finishing, she said the life ins…