HUM

by Dan Hawley

  People were hurrying along on the streets below, milling into and out of various buildings. Samantha stared at them, wondering how many of those people were infected. Just going about their day as if nothing was wrong; breathing, sneezing, and blowing their noses.

  She was dreading it, but she knew what she had to do. She turned and headed towards her closet, removing her robe along the way. She hung her robe on the back of the closet door and began to dress. As she was dressing, Sam tried to remember where she had packed her mask. Her father had insisted she bring one. It was common in his culture to wear a mask if you felt unwell, out of respect for others. Samantha loved her Japanese culture; she thought it courteous and respectful, steeped in honor and tradition. As she searched in a duffle bag, her thoughts went to her parents.

  Longing squeezed at her heart as memories flooded her thoughts. She rooted through her drawers, looking for the black cloth mask but eventually found it in a small bag towards the back of the closet.

  Tucking the mask in her pocket, Sam went to the front door, put on her blue winter jacket, slipped on her waterproof boots, and grabbed her purse. She covered her mouth and nose with the mask and secured the strings behind her ears. Her long black hair fell back down and framed her face. A quick look at herself in the full-length hallway mirror to make sure everything was in its proper place, and she was out the door.

  * * *

  “Hello, Chester,” Samantha said.

  Chester looked up from behind the concierge desk. It appeared to Sam that Chester was busy instructing the young concierge in some aspect of his job.

  “Oh, Samantha. I barely recognized you in that thing. How are you?”

  “I’m well, thank you. Off to the store to get a few things. Pretty crazy, this whole thing.”

  Samantha gestured to the lobby tv where CNN was playing on mute.

  Chester looked up at the tv and back at Samantha.

  “Ah yes,” he said, “be careful out there. If you and Jason need anything, you’ll let me know, won’t you?”

  “Thank you, Chester. We will.”

  The mask blocked her smile as she turned and exited the lobby onto the street. People were hurrying up and down the grey sidewalk. Some were also wearing masks. Samantha joined the crowd and headed toward the pharmacy.

  “Ow!” Sam shouted suddenly. Pain stabbed her as the impact of the offending pedestrian spun her almost a hundred and eighty degrees. Her shoulder throbbed where the stranger had clipped her.

  “What the hell!” she called.

  The person didn’t acknowledge Sam or the fact that they had almost body-checked her into oblivion.

  “Asshole,” Sam cursed.

  She rubbed her shoulder and carried on through the crowd.

  The pharmacy was a madhouse. There were people everywhere, grabbing as much as they could carry. They filled baskets with hand sanitizer, masks, and anti-bacterial wipes. Others had cleared the isles of canned food and batteries, and one lady had a cart with six toilet paper packages.

  What was this lady going to do with seventy-two rolls of toilet paper? Samantha wondered.

  She grabbed a basket and pushed her way through the people. There were two small bottles of hand sanitizer left, so she threw those in her basket. She saw only one container of wipes. That went into the basket as well. She also grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a small first-aid kit.

  Sam walked over to the next aisle and got some multivitamins, echinacea, and a bottle of vitamin C. She peeked around the corner and saw that the toilet paper was dwindling fast. She hurried over, picked up one package of twelve rolls, and stuffed it under her arm.

  “Because I’m not a hoarding bitch,” she mumbled to herself.

  She walked to the front of the store and began emptying her basket onto the checkout counter. The register beeped as the items rang though.

  “Hey!” a voice said behind Sam.

  “Hey, lemme buy one of those hand sanitizers off ya, huh?”

  The voice belonged to a skinny, middle-aged man who was wearing what looked like a gas mask. His eyes were wild and desperate. He held out a five-dollar bill pinched between two surgical glove covered fingers. The sight of this extra cautious man was both comical and depressing.

  “Oh,” Samantha said, “Well, you can just have one. No worries.”

  She pulled one of the bottles of hand sanitizer off the checkout and handed it to the man. He reached out and plucked it gingerly from Sam’s palm. He retracted his arm slowly, never taking his eyes from what he coveted.

  “Oh, thank you. Thank you,” the man said.

  He stared at the bottle almost lovingly. Samantha turned from him to find her other items had been through the checkout and placed in a plastic bag.

  “Oh, actually, I brought my own bag,” Samantha said.

  “We aren’t accepting those anymore due to the pandemic,” the check-out clerk replied.

  Sam shrugged and looked down at the screen that was waiting for her action. Tap or insert your card, it instructed. Sam tapped her card and thanked the cashier. With a quick glance back, Sam noted the man had gone. She ran her fingers through the bag’s handles, picked it up, and left the store.

  * * *

  “People are fucked,” Jason said. “I mean, five things of toilet paper. How about saving some for someone else? Selfish bitch. And the guy with the gas mask and gloves? What the hell. You’d think we were in a war zone or something.”

  Jason took a bite of his dinner.

  “It was crazy out there,” Sam replied. “The grocery store was just as bad. People were loading up on as much as they could carry. I got a little wrapped up in the frenzy myself.”

  Samantha smiled.

  “You know, we have dried pasta and zoodles for the next three months.”

  “Thank you for doing that, babe. I guess the stores would’ve been empty by the time I finished work.”

  “So, how do you feel about working from home?” Samantha gestured at the room behind her that was already set up as an office. Now the room was complete with a work laptop and various “Intellican” paraphernalia.

  “It’s a little weird ’cause I just started, but it’s all good,” Jason said. “At least I’ll have dry feet all day now.”

  “At least.” Samantha rolled her eyes.

  “What!?” Jason feigned his surprise. “Of course, it’ll be nice being around you all day too. All day, every day…” he joked.

  Samantha’s eyes widened, and her bottom lip pushed out in a pout.

  “Ah, come on, babe.” He put his arms around Sam and hugged her tight.

  “You’ll be sick of me before too long.”

  She sank into his embrace and stayed there with her ear pressed against his chest.

  “We’re gonna be ok right?” she asked. She nuzzled into him further, and his grip tightened.

  “Yeah, we are,” Jason replied. “We’ve got each other.”

  Samantha pulled back and planted a kiss on his lips. “You taste like garlic,” she whispered.

  “You taste like sex.” Jason smiled and showed his dimples. Samantha bit her lip and smiled back.

  Jason’s muscles flexed beneath his button-down as he grabbed Sam by the waist and pulled her up with him. She wrapped her toned legs around his hips and kissed him again, their tongues wrestling playfully. His hands cradled her firm buttocks as he carried Samantha to the bedroom. He set her down beside the bed, and she began to unbutton his shirt. He loosened his belt and undid his pants. Sam removed his shirt gracefully, and it landed in a pile on the floor.

  She grabbed her black Led Zeppelin t-shirt by the hem and flipped it up over her head. With one hand around her back, Jason expertly unfastened the clips of her bra while he continued to kiss her. The lacey, red garment fell to the floor as the pale moonlight from a rare clear evening touched Sam’s breasts. Jason grabbed them and squeezed.

  “I fuckin’ love your tits,” he breathed.

  The snaps on her pants
opened with a pop and they slid to the floor, exposing her tight butt to the world. Jason’s pants also fell as Samantha reached down his front.

  “Well,” she whispered, “What do we have here?”

  * * *

  The shower hissed, and steam escaped from the bathroom as Jason lay on the bed. His heart, still affected, beat heavily in his chest. He breathed slowly and deeply to relax as he stared out the bedroom window. He watched as thin clouds began slowly shrouding the moon.

  His thoughts dwelled on his father and home. He wondered if it had been a mistake coming out here, so far from home. So isolated. If this thing goes wrong, he thought, being in the city would be dangerous.

  Jason was pulled from his trance by the ding of his phone; its screen lit the room. He rolled, dropped his legs to the floor, and sat naked on the side of the bed. He grabbed his phone, the blue glow lighting up his features. There was a text from his dad asking Jason how he was.

  He replied that all was well, but his new job was now remote and that people were acting crazy in the stores.

  Jason sent the text and tapped on the news app.

  The virus was continuing to spread. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world were dead. There was a link to a coronavirus counter, so Jason tapped it. The link opened a new browser window that showed a world map with each country color coded based on case count. Below the map was a list of countries with numbers of infected and dead that updated live.

  “God,” Jason said.

  He scrolled a few moments longer, noting the hardest-hit countries. He closed the app and clicked the button on the side to turn the screen off. Jason set his phone down on the bedside table and spread his arms out to stretch.

  The steady hiss and sound of flowing water ended as Samantha turned off the shower. Another sound took its place—the sound behind the walls. That monotone hum, droning on. It was there the whole time, of course, just drowned out by the water. He shook his head slightly and stood up. Jason walked towards the wall by the door and pressed his ear against it. The mechanical vibration made him grit his teeth, and he silently cursed whatever was making that infernal racket.

  “What are you doing?” Samantha asked.

  She had entered the room with one white towel wrapped around her body and one white towel around her hair.

  Jason didn’t remove his ear from the wall to respond. “Bah, I dunno. Damned vibration in the wall. It’s so loud, not even just the sound but the vibration. Just rubs me the wrong way.”

  “I only really notice it when you bring it up,” Samantha said. “Try to ignore it.”

  She brushed her fingers across his back as she passed behind him. She grabbed her phone off the bedside table, unplugged it, and lay herself down on the bed. Jason stepped back from the wall and looked it up and down.

  “Yeah, I’ll try.”

  He stared at the smooth surface of the wall another moment then turned.

  “I’m gonna grab a shower then we should watch a movie?”

  “Sounds good.”

  CHAPTER 7

  “This was a good idea,” Samantha said.

  She watched the trees fly by her window in a blur. “Yeah, it was,” Jason agreed. “So glad to be out of the apartment for something other than a short walk or to get groceries. Was getting a little cabin fever all cooped up in there.”

  Music was playing quietly over the speakers as they made their way out into the wilderness.

  “Mount Rainier looks beautiful from the pictures.”

  “It’s a nice change from staring at the apartment wall for the past two months,” Jason said. “And maybe a little fresh air will help me sleep better.”

  Off the highway, to the left, he could see a large barn. Its massive front doors were open, and inside were cows in pens, feeding on hay.

  Beside the barn was a beautiful farmhouse painted white with bright red shutters. Acres of soggy fields sprawled behind it.

  “You’re keeping an eye on the map, right?” Jason glanced over at Sam.

  “Yes, I’m keeping an eye on the map.”

  Samantha rolled her eyes and grabbed her phone from her lap. She tapped the map app.

  “Oh, whoops. We were supposed to take that right back there.”

  “Are you kidding!?” Jason snapped. “Goddamn it, Sam! How hard is it to keep an eye on the stupid map?” His words bit into Samantha.

  “Holy shit Jay, I was kidding! It’s like a straight drive until we get there. What’s your problem?”

  Samantha crossed her arms in a huff.

  Blood rushed to Jason’s cheeks. Realizing what had happened, he blushed with shame and regret.

  “Sorry, babe,” he apologized meekly. “I’ve just been so stressed lately, I guess. I haven’t been sleeping well, the new job, being stuck at home all the time, this goddamn pandemic!”

  “It hasn’t exactly been a cakewalk for me either, you know,” Samantha said. Things had started out ok. Jason had his own office space, and she did her own thing. But then, at some point, it stopped feeling like a vacation and started feeling like a prison.

  “You used to come out of your office every now and then and say hi and kiss me,” she grumbled. “Now your door is shut most of the day, and I have no idea what you’re doing in there!”

  “I’m working,” Jason said.

  His teeth grated against each other as he replied. “Are you? It seems pretty quiet in there most of the time. I put my ear against the door the other day and heard only silence. At the start of this thing, all I heard all day was the clicking of your damn keyboard. Now I wonder if you’re even alive in there!” Samantha’s voice became more shrill as the conversation progressed.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Jason said.

  His fingers dug into the steering wheel that was now acting as a stress ball.

  “And Jesus, you’re moody!”

  Samantha’s almond eyes began to well up until they reached capacity. Tears began to fall down her cheeks.

  “It’s like I’m walking on eggshells around my own place because I don’t know what kind of mood you’ll be in at any given time. You come out of your office looking like a zombie, and you haven’t touched me in weeks!”

  Jason’s jaw clenched, and his knuckles turned white from the pressure of squeezing the wheel. He took a deep breath and held it a moment. The SUV rolled down the road to the soundtrack of quiet music and gentle sobs.

  After a few minutes, Sam’s tears ceased, and her breathing became more even and regular. Her expression turned blank as the scenery rushed by her window—vast swaths of coniferous forest, cut by long, meandering driveways that disappeared into its depths. Small patches of houses and fields sat lonely at the foot of lush, green hills.

  Jason’s scowl had now softened. His hands relaxed on the wheel as his eyes transitioned from angry little beads to tired, baggy lumps. He looked over at Samantha.

  “I’m sorry, Sam. I just haven’t been myself lately. I dunno what to say.” Remorse colored his words. “I’ll be better. I promise.”

  Jason reached his arm out and placed his hand on Sam’s lap. She pulled her gaze from the window and looked at Jason with a deep, fortifying breath. She offered him a half smile.

  She placed her delicate hand on his and squeezed lightly. The signs from an increasing number of motels and inns beckoned the couple to come and stay, offering free breakfast and scenic views. But the view they were after was just ahead, past the park entrance.

  Jason slowed down and stopped behind a sleek, red sports car next in line to pay the fee. Mount Rainier was not typically busy in early spring, and with the pandemic, it was even quieter.

  When it was their turn, Jason pulled up to the visitor center window. The once open window was now blocked by plexiglass with one small hole for talking and one semi-circle for payment. The masked park attendant provided a list of what roads and trails were open and which ones were closed. She also told them that many shops and inns were closed or operating on
a massively reduced capacity due to COVID-19. Jason said that they were only planning on spending the day hiking anyway and had packed a lunch, so that didn’t bother them much.

  The couple pulled away and continued onward towards their destination. The road twisted through the pines at a steady incline. After a few minutes, the trees suddenly broke, and they saw that they had ascended part-way up the mountain range. The road carved out of the side of the mountain was smooth and paved. The odd black line sharply contrasted with the grey rock as it wove its way up and out of sight.

  Sam was in awe of the magnitude of it all. They were so tiny compared to the massive rocky formation. The barren peaks and the wild valleys were quiet reminders that life was dangerous. This was easy to forget as people lounged in their climate-controlled homes, rooms full of manufactured furniture, bellies full of imported delicacies.

  Out here, though, it was resoundingly clear to Samantha that one wrong step could cost you your life.

  “It’s beautiful, huh?” Jason said.

  “Terrifyingly so,” Sam responded.

  She cracked the window down, and it whistled. She pointed her nose to the breeze and inhaled a lungful of fresh, mountain air. She exhaled and smiled, allowing the emotions from the earlier conversation to melt away. Samantha sat in bliss, eyes closed, swaying with the road.

  Her meditation was interrupted by a shift in speed. Jason slowed down, pulled the vehicle into the parking lot, and stopped. Sam opened her eyes, and with a renewed sense of vigor, collected her things and opened the door.

  “We picked a perfect day,” Jason said.

  He stretched, opened the back, and grabbed his pack. He threw it over his shoulders as Sam rounded the corner. They paused and looked at each other. Jason extended his arms, and Samantha fell into his embrace. They squeezed each other tight and just stood there in the sunlight.