Week 3 Story: Another Pandemic

    The year is 1920. Charlie, a young man in his early twenties, is trying his hardest to stay sane in an insane year. There is currently a pandemic going on due to the Spanish Flu. Everyone is wearing masks and nobody knows when normality will come again. Millions of people have been infected by this deadly flu. Charlie has just finished his schooling and on job hunt but has had no luck. He thinks to himself, “I wish I could just sleep until this is all over”. He is tired of staying home and is not hopeful for his future.

    Charlie is still living at home with his parents. One morning at breakfast, Charlie starts to feel ill after eating. His parents tell him to go to his bedroom and try to sleep it off. Charlie is scared, thinking he may have the flu, even though he never leaves his home. Charlie listens to his parents and goes up to his room. Before he falls into a slumber, he says to himself, “I hope everything will be alright when I wake up”.         

    Charlie sleeps and sleeps longer, and longer. He sleeps for so long, his parents sent him to a hospital to stay because they did not know what was wrong with him. Time passes and he never awakes. The Spanish Flu ends and life returns back to normal but Charlie is still asleep. Until finally one day, he awakes. The year is 2020, he was asleep for 100 years. He had been moved from hospital to hospital. When he wakes up, he in confused. Why is he not in his small bedroom in his parents' home? What are these spectacular machines he is hooked up to? What is this screen with people on it talking about news? Why has fashion changed so much? Charlie has so many questions, he must find someone to talk to. 

    Finally, a nurse walks in. Charlie asks, “how long was I asleep?” “why do I feel so old?’. The nurse tells him he was asleep for 100 years, but not to worry because he should be just fine. She tells him he can be released from the hospital soon; he has relatives who have been waiting to take him home. But he has two more question, “if I’ve been asleep for 100 years, the Spanish flu should be over, correct?”. The nurse tells him, “yes, it ended the year you fell asleep.” Charlies asks one more question, “why are you still wearing a mask then?”. Charlie then learns he is in a brand-new pandemic due to the coronavirus. He then politely tells the nurse, “I would rather be asleep again than go through another pandemic”. She couldn’t imagine going through another pandemic again either, so she secretly slips Charlie into another coma. As Charlie falls back asleep, he thinks to himself, “next time I wake up, please let things be back to normal”.

Authors Note: I started with reading "The Sleep of One Hundred Years". It gave me inspiration to write this story about the pandemic. In "The Sleep of One Hundred Years", an old rabbi goes to sleep after seeing his town completely destroyed by a war. He sleeps for one hundred years. He wakes up as a very old man and everything has changed. His once destroyed world, was beautiful once again. He realizes he does not long belong in this new world and goes back to sleep forever. I made the story relatable to what is happening in current times. Instead of the world being better in one hundred years, it has changed none for Charlie. 

Bibliography: 

"Sleep of One Hundred Years" by Gertrude Landa, from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends. 

Web Source: Sleep of One Hundred Years

Image Information: Wear Your Mask to Slow The Spread

Everyone Masked Up