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DAY 40: TOTAL CONFIRMED DEATHS 190,861 WORLDWIDE

He was running, on dirt and rocks, sweating profusely, in bare feet.

Even in the pre-pandemic era she would have thought this insane, but now? With all the risk? It could live on surfaces for days, in the air for hours, and this guy was just jaunting around in his bare skin?

Just when she thought it couldn’t get any weirder.

His body was slick, as if he was fresh off a water slide, and she accidentally got a whiff of him, some earthy scent of manly deodorant (probably encased in a black plastic container with bold and stark lettering) floated up into her nostrils. She tried to cough it out.

Most people were now wearing masks or at least a piece of cloth over their nose and mouths, even when exercising. Not Sweaty Man. The only article of clothing on him was a pair of small running shorts.

Maybe he was trying to capture the feeling of freedom, of control, of euphoria by prancing straight ahead, wind whipping through his thin shorts, sand and rocks squishing up between his toes, beads of sweat bouncing off his thick head of dark hair.

She watched him swerve- at least he was trying to avoid the larger, sharper rocks.

After being completely appalled and stricken with awe at the sight of Sweaty Man, she found that she admired him, just a little. It took courage and a carelessness that was truly uncommon.

He had zero fucks to give. Like, zero.

Virus be damned, he would go out into the world, face free of coverings, feet free of little rubber and cloth houses, bare chest exposed to the world. The world could take it or leave it, Sweaty Man didn’t care.


He was like a human honey-badger.

Was this what it was like to face death straight on? To look the Grim Reaper in the eye asking him to “bring it?”

This vision of steely determination, one full of total and complete freedom, bounced on down the trail without a glance back.

She was still trying to cough out his exhalation molecules.

She was nothing like Sweaty Man, and she didn’t know if she was happy about that.

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