E-volver 2020 - Escape

The instructions to text the phrase 'I want to escape' to an unknown cell phone number has to be the weirdest way in which I have been asked to attend a theatre performance. No further instructions were given aside from a time to send the text message.

At 4:46PM, sitting on the comfy leather loveseat in my living room, I sent the text.

I didn't know what I expected to happen – appliances mysteriously turning themselves on, maybe? – but the sounds around me seemed to amplify as I awaited what came next.

A bird chirping. People talking. My boyfriend starting up a video recording of me.

I didn't jump when I got the first response. But I came pretty darn close.

It was a question.

By the pause and brief comeback after my response, I got the impression I surprised my anonymous texter. Our divergent perspectives on solitude and the concept of space became more apparent as the conversation progressed. It occurred to me that perhaps I wouldn't be so cocky and self-assured if this chat were happening around midnight.

Slithering behind shelves and under beds? Shudder.

At times, I felt like the texter was trying to get under my skin, trying to pull the veil from my eyes to reveal some truth I just wasn't grasping.

Like the texts were trying to drown out the birdsong and humanity to expose me to the pestilential scrabbling in some feared dimension.

Yup, sure glad I had people I trusted around me. Sure glad I was safe at home.

I listened to the final monologue and reflected on exactly why Covid-19 hadn't rocked my world like it has so many others. It isn't just that I haven't lost anyone to this dreadful pandemic or that I know I can pay my rent for the foreseeable future.

It is because my space hasn't been disrupted. My work shifted seamlessly online, all essential services are a block's walk away and I have my boyfriend staying with me for companionship.

My new normal isn't much different from the pre-pandemic days.

I am a pampered soul in these trying times.

So having to engage in a text conversation with an unknown entity for an undefined amount of time and confronting the fact that something as simple as getting a strange text in the middle of the night would throw my secure reality for a loop was a bitter pill to swallow.

Bitter but necessary.