corre
dora ↦↦
↦↦
↦↦
dora ↦↦
↦↦
↦↦
POST: 0008
PROSE
11-30-02021
The elevators don’t work at the hospital because the engineers are on strike. I’m here to visit a friend who was struck by a sprinter van. Yesterday, a teenager in a 𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓸 𝓚𝓲𝓽𝓽𝔂™ surgical mask and paper smock lanced me with a nasal swab. 12 hours later, I got a text that says the swab had no viral DNA. Now, I’m showing this text at the guard station at the hospital. They attach an electric-green bracelet that says NEG, and show me to the stairs. I pretend this is fine.
I’m breathing heavily in my mask because I walked up 18 flights of stairs to get to the room of the friend I am visiting. The engineers have been on strike for 62 days. I can see them from the window. They have an 𝙀𝙕-𝙐𝙥™ canopy shading a ＫＥＵＲＩＧ™ coffee system, extra picketing signs, and a man cooking bacon on a G̳e̳o̳r̳g̳e̳ ̳F̳o̳r̳e̳m̳a̳n̳ ̳G̳r̳i̳l̳l̳™ (The Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine™).
On the ꜱᴀᴍꜱᴜɴɢ™ x90ᴊ television in the waiting area, there are hundreds of people lining a street in Dallas. 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy’s body fell across his wife's lap after he was shot once in the upper back and once in the head. Today, hundreds of people are prayerfully hoping that he will make a supernatural return. They are hoping that the last 50 years have been a fever dream, or a divine test of will, or just a bad joke. They hope that magic exists, and that it’s 𝙰𝙼𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙲𝙰𝙽-𝙼𝙰𝙳𝙴. On the television, a pundit with silver hair says Americans are "hopelessly detaching from reality.” I feel like everything is detaching everything.
This morning, at 𝕎𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕖𝔽𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕤 𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕖𝕥™, I saw a sign next to the 𝕿𝖔𝖕𝖔 𝕮𝖍𝖎𝖈𝖔™ seltzer. It said:
LIMIT - 2 Per Customer - (Due to Global Supply Chain Crisis)
C L U N K ♫ C L U N K ♫ C L U N K ♫
A patient is rolling a chrome-plated IV pole down the stairs to their surgery because the elevators don’t work. The engineers are outside picketing next to a 10-foot inflatable GRINCH™ in a Santa hat. The sign around his neck bears the name of the president of the company that owns the hospital. The engineers want a 2% salary increase. The president of the company that owns the hospital can’t pay, or won’t pay, or is looking for someone else who will fix elevators for cheaper.
There is a 2 𝕿𝖔𝖕𝖔 𝕮𝖍𝖎𝖈𝖔™ per customer limit. I didn’t want 1, but now I want 3 because it worries me that I can only have 2. I want the engineers to get a 100% salary increase. I want everyone to get a 100% salary increase. I want everyone to have everything they need. I want President John F. Kennedy to come back and tell me that America is a magical place, where dreams come true.
Something is happening here. I’m afraid that my friend in this hospital is too weak to make it down the stairs. I‘m afraid they will die. The sign in the stairwell says:
WALK - DON’T RUN
But I want to run, and I don’t know where.
The elevators don’t work at the hospitals.
Run.
The 𝕿𝖔𝖕𝖔 𝕮𝖍𝖎𝖈𝖔™’s are gone.
Run.
President John F. Kennedy is never coming back. Everything that died is never coming back
Run!
The old world is burning behind you. The air is fetid & foul. There is no magic left there. The new world is coalescing in front of you with every step, so step well. Run toward a place that still has magic.
I’m at the hospital to visit a friend, who can’t heal here. We are leaving. They can’t make it down the stairs, so a custodian helps me carry them.
“Teamwork makes, the dream work,” he says.