City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research Borough of Manhattan Community College 2020 Kreplach Kayos Covid Marleen S. Barr CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bm_pubs/149 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] Kreplach Kayos Covid A Short Story by Marleen S. Barr Professor Sondra Lear, a feminist science fiction scholar par excellence, no longer loved living in the Empire State Building’s shadow. Although Sondra thought that science fiction texts were nice respectable places to visit, she absolutely did not want to live in one. She wished that the Empire State could strike back faster against the corona virus. Quarantining in a city reduced to a mere shadow of its former self was wearing thin. Perusing the New York Times and listening to Governor Cuomo’s press briefings now qualified as being a full day’s work. When Cuomo ended his remarks by as usual mentioning “New York toughness,” Sondra began to nap on her sofa. The sound of something going bump in the afternoon roused her from her boredom-induced torpor. She half-heartedly opened one eye and gazed directly at a familiar figure floating below her ceiling fan. Upon immediately recognizing the dark-suited man hovering above, she stared at him with two eyes wide open. Even though she was a science fiction scholar and, hence, used to the unreal, Sondra failed to believe that Governor Cuomo could at once be sitting at his briefing and levitating in her apartment.