Rona a Month Ago

M

atatus, exquisite works of art on wheels and where I draw the majority of my despair. Predominantly because there are multiple areas of improvement within this transport method. Today's encounter tested my thermal comfort and my faith. Packed in a 14-seater to transverse 4 counties, I was too frugal to shell out an additional ksh50 that comes with the shuttle luxury of 3 fewer seats.

Two hours have elapsed. We are still at the bus stop waiting for two more travellers for us to be on our way. It is a sauna! And rather than the euphoria experienced in a steam chamber, I sit in a sticky agitated mass of paranoia even though the windows are closed as I use my phone. Thank goodness, we are finally off.

Glance around to acquaint myself with the present county-crossing community and surprisingly majority are still in their jackets. In all fairness, it rained this morning, but now the temperature has risen to unbearable levels! Are they immune to the heat? Maybe they have a nifty new air conditioning gadget sewed onto the insides of their garment. Nothing is inconceivable in this tech-age. More importantly, did you not get wind of the alleged COVID_19 aka Coronavirus patient quarantined right here in Nairobi? P.S the patient tested negative. 

Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash

As soon as the thought flashed in my mind, someone starts coughing. Lord, is this how it all ends? Not 10 minutes later, ‘seat 11’ gives my standby paranoia a jump start with a much chestier cough. At this point, I'm inspired to deliver a stirring sermon on the end times: how our persistent refusal to open windows will be our Armageddon. No offering will be collected as this is my CSR (commuter social responsibility) Neither shall supplication for long life be offered. Is the prayer hotline a joke? You warm carbon dioxide recycling thanites*!

Cruising well above the authority's designated velocity, my panic is interrupted by the speed governor screaming three rows away where the driver, whose window is completely rolled down allows me sweet, the fleeting reprieve of a stiff breeze. In case you find not another post, I'm tucked away in a makeshift lab with other like-minded solution seekers concocting a remedy for this ill.

*For all you non-conversant with Freud, Thanos is a death wish, it only stands to reason that thanites are those actively seeking to hasten their mortality