Fiction

Marissa’s mental alarm clock never failed her. 5:00 a.m. every day she would wake, turn off her actual alarm before it sounded, and check the New York Times, which as of late had only negative liberal warbling about the waning virus and how they expected it to linger indefinitely. It was like they wanted the world to shut down forever because it gave their nouveau hippie techster, eat-a-plant-based-diet-no-matter-how-bad-it-tasted, Christian-socialist minds something to rally around. Marissa was an old-school liberal—thoughtful, reasonable, and considerate of other viewpoints. She didn’t dig in her heels when there were questions still to answer. Oh well, times had changed. Now, you had to have a platform. She didn’t. She wandered to the bathroom for her 5:30 a.m. shower and shave...