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DAY 19: TOTAL CONFIRMED DEATHS 47,231 WORLDWIDE

She stared into her eyeball. It was wet, like most eyeballs, but unlike most eyeballs, hers was shaded brown around the pupil, and the green ringed the brown. This was not hazel. There was no mixing, but two separate colors that encircled and merged delicately together. If one stared long enough, at eyeballs or any other patterns in nature, one would find that these patterns repeated. At the atomic level one could see the same shape as a spiral or elliptical galaxy- a super-massive black hole around which solar systems, other galaxies rotated- just as electrons did a dance around a nucleus. In this same fashion the eye resembled the sun during an eclipse- A dark center with flames dancing outward. And these flames that encircled the sun, made up the sun’s outermost layer called the corona.

Originally in Latin the word corona meant “crown” or “wreath.” That sounded positive. To be crowned meant you were on the top of the social hierarchical pyramid; god spoke through crowned kings and queens. A wreath could also be positive- like a wreath one hangs on the front door to welcome guests or to inform passersby of which holiday season was the current one. But a wreath could also be negative- like a wreath of thorns pressed into the soft, sweaty temples of a young Jesus.

In botany corona represented true beauty. The corona was, “the cup-shaped or trumpet-shaped outgrowth at the center of a daffodil or narcissus flower.” How delightful. No one who claimed sanity hated daffodils. It was impossible.

But now, this term was forever changed in the psyche of the world, because this was the name of the virus. The Coronavirus, or COVID-19. She was so sick about hearing the term over and over and over. The news shows even had special music for it: DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNN SPECIAL CORONA VIRUS COVERAGE UP NEXT AND FOR THE NEXT 8 HOURS!

Did it really need it’s own music and flying text across the screen?

Over five thousand souls had already perished in her country, and the models projected around 200,000 deaths before the virus was done having its fun. That was, if citizens were successful in flattening the curve.

There was minimal flattening so far. The graphs were only spiking up, up, and up again.

Anyone could be an asymptomatic carrier, infecting the rest of the world. She looked into her eyeball again- what did she see? Was the deadly, terrifying corona hiding in there? How long could she hold out until it got her, until it crept into the porous membranes of her eye, and put out the sun?

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