The Masked

At first there was a gasp, and then all eyes in the forum of the bank turned to the entrance as Michael walked in. He was used to the stares, the whispers, amongst strangers. Especially from the younger people, the ones who weren’t alive back then. Like the security guard who approached him calmly.

“Excuse me, Customer. I must ask you to remove your face covering,” said the guard.

“I rather not,” was Michael’s muffled reply from behind a black cotton mask that covered his nose down to his chin.

A beat past. In it, the guard noticed the wrinkles under Michael’s eyes, the creases on his forehead, how his skin sags. Realization struck the guard. This man was COVID-shocked.

COVID-shock: a pseudo-medical term used to describe the people who lived and survived the COVID Years of the early 2020s. Back then, face masks were mandatory for some period all over the world while the death tolls piled up. A small percentage of the survivors were resistant to returning to their maskless days, even 50 years after the last recorded COVID death.

There was protocol for handling this small but often vocal and violative minority: let them through, but keep an eye on them for any funny business. Groups of them have protested against the lifting of mask mandates in the past; are known to demand to speak to supervisors and even the CEO in the midst of their tirades. The guard even read one case when a COVID-shocker called the police on the police who tried to get them to remove their mask. The guard wasn’t having any of it.

“As you are,” said the guard, stepping to the side so that Michael could enter.

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