{"id":976,"date":"2020-10-05T00:07:38","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T07:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/?p=976"},"modified":"2020-11-22T17:10:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T01:10:41","slug":"sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xxiii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/2020\/10\/05\/sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xxiii\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheltering in Place at the Magdalena Arms: Episode XXIII"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Previously<\/strong>: Beverly returned from her shift at the hospital coughing that she\u2019d caught Covid and certain tenants competed for nursing duty, while Laura made a mysterious phone call. In the uproar over Beverly, the quest for Mrs. DeWitt’s daughter is almost forgotten–except by the two civil servants.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Records<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phyllis and Laura had agreed that, for safety\u2019s sake, they would walk to the Department of Public Records instead of taking the bus. Together they set out briskly the morning following the nursing meeting in the garden. Both were silent for the first several blocks, preoccupied with their own thoughts. Phyllis was thinking, rather guiltily, that it was a relief to get away from the unrest in the Arms. She\u2019d woken to the sound of Beverly hoarsely arguing with Lon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo! (cough cough) I\u2019m not so far gone I can\u2019t take my own temperature!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lon had soothed. \u201cWell, I\u2019ll just leave this tray then. There\u2019s your thermos of hot ginger-water, another thermos of chicken broth, and a bowl of that bran-oat gruel you like.\u201d They\u2019d paused, and then receiving no response, added \u201cI\u2019ll check back in a couple\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is just the first day of Beverly\u2019s illness<\/em>, thought Phyllis, her spirits sinking. She stole a glance at Laura, wondering if similar worries were making her companion so silent and serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura was thinking of her phone call with a growing sense of unease. Yesterday it had seemed like the right thing to do, but as news of Beverly\u2019s obstreperous resistance to all the would-be nurses trickled through the Arms grapevine, she began to have doubts. Her interference now seemed rash, ill-advised. If Audley actually shows up<\/em>, Laura thought gloomily, it\u2019ll be just like throwing gasoline on a smoldering fire!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Determined to put the matter from her mind, she looked about her. The social scientist hadn\u2019t been anywhere except the grocery store for weeks and she was struck by the number of people running and walking, sitting on their steps, or working in garages open to the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook,\u201d Laura indicated as discreetly as possible, a young woman in gym attire, who seemed to be performing some complicated calisthenics, jumping on and off a small stool she\u2019d placed in the middle of the sidewalk. \u201cEverything that was inside is outside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wondered if this was a metaphor for Bay City\u2019s mental state. The neurotic behavior formerly hidden from public view was now made manifest. Laura wished there was a way to study this psychological phenomenon properly, to convert these unsettling observations into so many data points. Instead she asked Phyllis quizzically, \u201cWill that be us in another few weeks?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phyllis eyed the flushed, panting woman, beads of sweat standing out on her forehead, and detoured them into the street. \u201cIt better not be,\u201d she said. \u201cDo you know how widely sweat droplets can spread during vigorous exercise?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statistician\u2019s single-minded focus on numbers, quantities, scientific studies with verifiable results, had its usual soothing effect on Laura, and she listened to Phyllis expound on sweat radii and average viral loads like a child listening to a favorite book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they approached the Bay City\u2019s business district, the streets grew emptier. Tall office towers rose up on either side, eerily quiet. They passed Gruneman\u2019s; a mesh gate had been pulled down in front of the revolving doors and padlocked. In the display windows, the blank faced mannequins were frozen in the same spring fashions they\u2019d been dressed in back in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a ghost town,\u201d Laura murmured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt certainly makes you think about alternative land use!\u201d Phyllis agreed, her eyes darting about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statistician sensed that her colleague was in the grip of a disorienting unease, but the spectacle of the city stunned into stillness filled Phyllis with an odd sense of euphoria. If the such a powerful urban machine can be halted, then anything is possible!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the ease of long familiarity, the two Bay City bureaucrats passed City Hall and turned down a narrow alley, a short cut to the side entrance of the Social Services Administration building. Normally the squat steel and glass structure was a bustling beehive of bureaucracy, but today there was only a masked guard at a desk inside the door. They flashed their city badges and walked through a labyrinth of long empty corridors, the only sound their echoing footsteps, before finally arriving at a door with the word \u201cRECORDS\u201d painted in gold on its pebbled glass window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura tapped briskly on the glass, and after a pause the door swung open, and a woman a little older peered at them suspiciously over glasses that were attached to a chain around her neck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere you are,\u201d she said to Laura, ignoring Phyllis completely. The words came out from behind a medical grade paper mask. Laura\u2019s friend must be well-connected<\/em>, Phyllis thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello Florence, are we late?\u201d Laura followed Florence into a large dim room filled with rows and rows of filng cabinets, and Phyllis trailed behind. She had a feeling Florence was miffed she was there, for some reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou wanted births, right?\u201d Again Florence addressed Laura as if Phyllis was invisible. \u201cYou need to go to Room 2B, just follow the right hand aisle all the way back. Remember, don\u2019t take anything<\/em> out of the drawers. Mark it with this,\u201d she handed Laura a stack of red file dividers of stiff cardboard, \u201cAnd then come find me. You have until 2:30. Then I lock up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo-thirty\u2026but I thought,\u201d Laura began<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReduced hours,\u201d Florence said tersely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d Laura said, \u201cI understand. I\u2014we really appreciate your help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, thank you so much,\u201d Phyllis interjected a little timidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell,\u201d Florence sniffed. \u201cI owe you Laura, and I always pay my debts!\u201d She turned away and retreated to a desk in the corner, whose lamp cast a pool of light around it. Phyllis followed Laura down the right-hand aisle. She could only wonder what bureaucratic favors Laura had traded to gain them access to the pandemic shuttered stacks of the Public Records Department!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish I\u2019d brought a flashlight,\u201d Laura muttered, as they made their way down the aisle and the shadows grew darker. \u201cI forgot that all Bay City Departments are under the new frugality regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a penlight in my purse,\u201d Phyllis paused to retrieve the useful tool she always carried and switch it on.  The narrow beam illuminated a door marked 2B. She wondered if that\u2019s why Laura\u2019s friend was so touchy\u2014if they\u2019d reduced her hours as well as electricity usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Room 2B was small and windowless, lined with narrow drawered cabinets like card catalogs. A sign hung overhead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Births \u2014><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\u2014Deaths<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s divide up the list Ramona made,\u201d Laura pulled from her purse the list of Mrs. DeWitt\u2019s aliases and pseudonyms,  \u201cHere, I can just tear it\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the door whooshed closed behind Phyllis and the room was plunged into darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh dear!\u201d Phyllis played the penlight over the wall, searching for a light switch. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize\u2026I\u2019m afraid we\u2019ll have to turn on the overheads, frugality or not!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura\u2019s voice came out of the dark, a few feet in front of her, \u201cI\u2019ve dropped the list of pseudonyms!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry\u2014\u201d Phyllis stabbed at the floor with the feeble penlight, wishing she\u2019d had room in her purse for a full-fledged flashlight. The beam wobbled and darted, glinting on the metal cabinets, highlighting the gray linoleum, and discovering Laura\u2019s pennyloafers before landing on a white patch that proved to be the piece of fallen paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phyllis bent to pick it up but found herself clutching Laura\u2019s wrist. Her brain told her to drop the warm, soft flesh like a hot potatoe, but instead it was the penlight that fell from her nerveless grasp and rolled away across the floor. She groped and found Laura\u2019s other hand. It was a wondrous sensation, the touch of someone else\u2019s skin, feeling the faint pulse in Laura\u2019s wrist. Something began to rise from deep within Phyllis, like sap in a sugar maple. Unbidden, a memory from long ago came back to the social scientist, of a professor writing on a chalk board in a far away classroom, Man is a gregarious animal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregarious or not, Laura should be leaping back, away from Phyllis, putting the requisite six feet between them. But she wasn\u2019t. She was still in the dark, her breath coming fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know Laura,\u201d Phyllis\u2019s voice was husky, \u201cI\u2019ve had a test, to prepare for the new in-person protocol. It was negative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I haven\u2019t!\u201d Now Laura did try to pull away, half-heartedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care,\u201d said Phyllis, just before their lips found each other in the dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next:<\/em><\/strong> Have the conscientious civil servants finally thrown caution to the winds? When they detach from their fateful lip-lock and turn their attention to the files, they make an unexpected discovery. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previously: Beverly returned from her shift at the hospital coughing that she\u2019d caught Covid and certain tenants competed for nursing duty, while Laura made a mysterious phone call. In the uproar over Beverly, the quest for Mrs. DeWitt’s daughter is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serial-siping-at-the-magdalena-arms"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}