Stoke Newington, London, June 9, 2020
Three months into the pandemic and things are getting confusing. When Israel was in lockdown, London was still bustling with people, but the fear had already trickled.
We ate in restaurants that only allowed half of the tables to be occupied, we trained in gyms while disinfecting our hands until they bled, and we maintained social distancing as per the recommendations.
But toward the end of the week, before the lockdown was imposed in London, Ravid and I agreed on one thing we will not give up: hosting friends for a good Shabbat meal with cholent.
There was a bad omen that preceded that. Moran texted me and said that her 5-year-old daughter had been coughing and therefore they would be staying at home. We took bets on who among our three other sets of guests will fall.
The primary suspect was Oded, who tends to touch everyone, and who insisted that everyone was paranoid during the early days of the pandemic. Two days later he partied at a live Indy concert.
The second suspect is Yoram, who still has to arrive at the office by bus, due to this ruthless boss. As for Zvi, the handsome person who had just returned from an exclusive ski vacation, we never thought he would be the one after he complained he was losing his sense of taste and smell while he was eating our cholent.
Several days later the facts began to trickle in. Loss of smell and taste was a declared a key symptom of COVID-19, and worse: The ski resort he had been too was the hot zone for the disease in Europe, in part because of the Beer Pong that was very popular among skiers.
One by one, we got details on his escapades in this Coronavirus Central. He also told us that his German partner had recently lost his sense of smell and taste.
The next several weeks were tough, I won't deny that. Behind Zvi's back we held a long series of discussions. Some pointed to his irresponsible and hedonistic behavior, others said he could not have known. Zvi, we have to say, was in dager of becoming a Persona Non Grata in our group.
Now that the fear has receded a bit, the two months have passed have reminded us of Zvi's nice parts, and now we all envy him for being a superhero, and he makes sure to show it like a peacock. Our gang wants to start planning, with hesitation, our annual visit to Greece.
If a new wave doesn't hit, we will soon join Zvi in olive orchards as he roams in his ATV to the sea, with his hair flowing in the wind and the antibodies filling his inoculated and suntanned body.
