Although he would rather have been stuck in an elevator with bees, Geoffrey, our 20-year-old, came to stay for New Year’s Eve because he had literally nothing else to do without breaking the law. No gatherings allowed. Our 24-year-old daughter, Clara, who hasn’t lived with us in years, spent the evening in our guest room recovering from having wisdom teeth yanked out of her head. While one moped and the other moaned, for my husband and me, the presence of two other humans in our quarantined home several months into the pandemic was alarming, like we’d been invaded by bears.
The only thing I could think to do for the evening was contribute to the war effort, so to speak, by supporting local restaurants, which were desperate for takeaway orders. But Clara could only imbibe baby food through a straw; my husband, Ambrose, is a diabetic vegetarian who had just gone off flour, potatoes, and sugar; and Geoffrey wasn’t focused on food at all. He yearned for something unobtainable, like a girlfriend he might meet at a party, or, failing that … I don’t know … a bowl of opium.
This story is from the December 2021 edition of Reader's Digest India.
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This story is from the December 2021 edition of Reader's Digest India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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