SEVENTY! … … … (or Day Eight of the Third Month)

The wind has a fresh breath, it speaks of a new arrangement that we will be let out from lock down, all of Shanghai, will be let out from lock down very soon. Yet we are on the curfew we who have been under lockdown longer than most I still restrained and constricted more than most. It is a hard condition to abide by, to accept, to endure… yet endure we must.

Under curfew we are allowed limited access to the compound; The main gate as it has been for the past 2 1/2 months, is  still locked; A desperate call went out this morning for volunteers to help the doctors do the PCI tests today;

A grandmother walked her child past the playground the child wants to play but the grandmother says no; today then my ball truck comes to us; Beimax kicks the door open to building 35 and calls of reasons down for their tests; we line up to be scanned our QR codes to be logged and residential addresses to be ticked off the list;

The medical team does their job that’s what they’re here to do; We cannot congregate, we cannot get together, we cannot get out… The volunteer informs the residents that they should move on.