The Queen Who Was to Come: touched by the coronavirus
On the day of the Queen’s arrival in China, the villagers did not expect her.
They had been caught off-guard; some had been told long ago of her coming, some had been at the market and even others had not yet erected the proper ceremonial structures for her.
She came anyway.
It was a long flight from Italy, and she decided to start her global trek in the Wuhan province. Where better to get the best greetings and commencement festival?
In time, her needs grew bigger – so big, in fact, that the villagers rushed to accommodate her armies in slipshod, ramshackle buildings.
When her armies were properly settled, she returned to Italy.
There, she found an even less-prepared welcoming, and she grew angrier. The Italians thought that she was to remain in Wuhan for much longer and even send some armies farther east than the Far East. (And she did, but she conveniently left that part out of her speech.)
Word spread of the Italians’ so-called unpreparedness. Sure, she wasn’t the best queen ever to have reigned. She wasn’t the most powerful, and she certainly was not the most beautiful. But she knew how to get under the skin, and that was important enough. A queen is a queen, after all. And heads did roll.
People from all countries across the world, shaking, swore they would not be caught off-guard when the Queen arrived. And she was due to arrive, but they did not know when. They wrote up rules for their citizens. They erected palaces and made beds. They even warned other countries – a silly thing, in a time of imminent global war, economic collapse and climate crisis. News passed along the virtual networks and soon everyone was aware: the Queen Was Coming, and she would not spare those who did not prepare for her.
In the United States, the death toll shook everyone to the core. They shuttered their doors (the wise ones did, at least). They did not embrace. They forsook all social convention and amorous connections, just to be ready. They bought guns en masse. They watched videos of Italians laughing and singing from their balconies, never touching, but touching nonetheless.
And then even the most prepared were not spared.
Why had it come to such ruin over there, with others? No, we would not face the same.
But America is enormous! Said some. It’s hopeless! Said others. Let’s party in the streets! Said a few. How can we stay at home for months on end if we can’t make it through one week? Said all of them. I will die, they said. We will die.
They waited.
The Queen, some reported, had already come (and, according to others, had already gone). Some said her armies passed through various states and countries, but She Herself was never seen. Some said she had never even existed. Some saw her reflection in the mirror behind them even after 14 days. And some did die.
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