covid-19 sci-fi: looking for old guides to quarantine
13 Apr 2020inspired by a conversation last saturday with my friend, abraham lateiner.
13 april 2026
timeo: ha! i knew we printed these out for a reason.
syla: i hate how right you are all the damn time.
timeo: lol. you say you hate it but i know deep down you loooooove it. come on, i think i deserve a kiss for this.
syla rolls their eyes but begrudingly gives timeo a kiss on the lips
timeo: WOO! that’s what i’m talking about. now let’s riffle through all these little zines and figure out which one we need.
syla: i’ll take this box and you can take that one?
timeo: sounds good to me.
the couple begins shuffling through two small boxes of 8-panel zines made from 8.5x11” sheets of paper
s: oh i think i have the box for coupled folx.
t: yeah, this one is definitely for folx in quarantine with no romantic interests in the pod.
paper shuffling continues
s: dang, i can’t believe people found not only time to figure all this out but to connect about it and write down all the shit they learned. “2-person couples that moved in because of quarantine,” “2-person person couples that have recently broken up but are stuck together in quarantine with no kids,” “2-person person couples that have recently broken up but are stuck together in quarantine with 1 kid,” “2-person person couples that have recently broken up but are stuck together in quarantine with multiple kids.” it really just goes on and on.
t: whew, yeah this pile seems just as complex. “2-person pods with no romantic interest,” “3-person pods with no kids,” “3-person pod with 1 kid,” et cetera et cetera.
s: pretty wild that here, in good ole shiny amerikkka, things got to this place.
t: it’s also pretty nuts that people got to this before that last president took over the internet. we’re definitely lucky to have gotten this stuff off of servers because they all got poached.
s sighs
s: did you find what we’re looking for yet?
[to be continued]
words / writing / post-processing
350w / 13min /