How did it happen?

(Signs of the Times is a work of fiction based on true events. Views expressed are the characters’ own. Viewer discretion is advised.)

We didn’t lose one million people. We lost one person, a million times.

You know this person. It’s your grandfather. The clerk at the DMV who helped snip some bureaucratic tape in an act of humanity. Your preacher. Your favorite bartender.

A great—albeit misogynistic—thinker said “The world of men money and power hums merrily along on the fuel of fear and anger and frustration and craving and the worship of self.”

The pandemic of the early ‘20s that we’re still wrestling with laid bare that world. But like a silver coin spinning and reflecting stadium lights, there were flashes of community.

I’ll try my damndest to move past this. And in 100 years they’ll ask us, “what was it like?” And I’ll shrug and say, “I dunno. I played a lot of Fortnite. Worked out in my driveway. Had plenty of takeout. Watched my neighborhood empty out. Reads books all about life. And travel. And faraway places. Missed seeing faces. So many masks littered on sidewalks and natural spaces.”

I won’t mention the one person who died a million times. It just won’t make sense.