Blackest Friday - free write

This was the quietest and most unusual Black Friday Irene had ever seen. Usually on this weekend she would prefer to stay away from the city, or at least to spend it indoors, away for the crowds going on crazy shopping sprees, running for the bargains and deals of the year.

Last days of November were unexpectedly warm this year. Irene liked to think it could be seen as a compensation for the difficult post-pandemic times. She had noticed that everything went up: prices, rents, gas, utility bills, groceries, everything! One thing lead to another. It was like a domino effect. And as if the inflation problem wasn't challenging enough, now medicine was going off the shelves!

She had never imagined that something like this could ever happen in a first world country! She stopped watching TV over a decade ago. As a matter a fact, she did not even own a TV. Browsing the internet was all she needed to fulfill her
thirst for knowledge. All those documentaries she had watched fifteen years ago and ever since she had given up the 9 to 5 rat race convinced her watching the news was pointless.

When she learnt about the temporary shortage of infant and children's liquid acetaminophen and ibuprofen products in Canada she was speechless. She had no clue about it, until her son came down with a nasty flue.
Needless to add that after his high fever, the vomiting lead to moderately towards severe dehydration!

Last Monday her son came home from school with a mild headache and a congested nose. By the end of the day his symptoms got worse and he got a high fever. For the entire weekend she was by his side, caring for him, trying to reduce his fever and ease his pain.

Because the boy had a weaker immune system, he was easily falling sick. She assumed it was because of his asthma that he always struggle with the cold and flu. Whenever he would get a cold, he could cough for almost four to six weeks after. His cough sounded more worrisome than it really was. Nevertheless, she was worrying for his health, cold or not.

Three days later when she ran out of children's Ibuprofen suspension in the middle of the night, she waited with impatience for the morning to come and go to pharmacy to buy two more bottles along with some drops for the cough, lemon lozenges, and a VapoRub ointment.

Once she got to her local pharmacy, she was shocked to see the empty shelves. She thought she was not seeing right. She told herself they must be rearranging the shelves. She headed towards the counter to ask someone where she could find some medicine for kids, relief for fever and pain.

The lab technicien that greeted her, said it was an ongoing nationwide shortage of pain medications . She added that infant and children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen products have been in limited supply since summer. They were supposed to receive some, just that they did not know when. Her reply puzzled Irene even more.

"How was this possible? How could I help my sick child without the meds? Home remedies work only to a certain extent!" The alternative was to go to the hospital and wait at the ER somewhere 12 to 18 hour to be seen by a doctor! Not a very appealing option! Usually such a visit came with a few more germs and viruses for anyone who dared to spend time in the ER waiting room.

The lab technician mentioned she could try giving her son the Tylenol tablets for adults. She took a few more minutes to explain the risk of overdosage and how to split the tablet in two. Irene thanked her and headed towards the isle for adults medicine. As soon as she stepped on isle 3, she looked on her right side, on the top shelf for the Tylenol. None to be seen!

Two feet away from her, there was an older woman who had kneeled down to pick up her purse which had fallen on the ground. Irene rushed to help the old woman gather her personal belongings that had spread on the isle's floor. As she bent down to collect some of the fallen items and reached for them, her eyes notices that the old lady was in a sort of distress. Her hands were shaking and she kept on nodding her head.

As Irene got closer to the older woman to hand her the glasses case, lip seal and a package of small tissues she had picked up from the ground, the latter reacted as if Irene was stealing from her. She did not understand that it was quite the opposite! Seeing that the old woman only seemed to get louder and disrespectful, she concluded it was a lost case, thus she decided to leave her alone and go back to her car.

She thought she would have to buy the Tylenol or Ibuprofene somewhere else. A bigger shop like Pharmaprix or Jean Coutu would probably have it stock. It was unprecedented to not find over-the-counter medicine. It got her worried. Mostly because she knew what scarcity entailed. She understood well that the medicine shortage was caused by a spike in childhood sickness. She questioned if she would need to go back to getting meds from US just like she was on treatment for her chronic illness.

While driving towards the closest Pharmaprix store, which was only 12 km away, she wandered if things would go back to normal. She was tired of the new normal. It felt as if there was no more humanity left. The fatigue, frustrations, sadness, depression, anger, fear, anxiety were the effects of this new normal.

Countless times she noted that ever since the pandemic kicked in, people lost their patience, compassion or empathy way faster than before. Nowadays everyone wanted everything done in the shortest time possible, for less money while having less tolerance for anything, never mind errors.

At work, she witnessed her clients turning from polite and courteous into nasty, disrespectful shrews. Her co-workers thickened her skin in the past two years. They had to! Working with the public is not always easy. Client can't always be right! But when your boss tells you to suck it up and not to take it personally after being verbally abused, the only options left are quitting or staying.

She ran in her mind the scenario of leaving the job more than once. Although she knew it was toxic to stay, she was not ready to leave. Not yet! She needed that extra nudge to make her step out of her comfort zone. She need to put on the big girl pants and embrace the unknown. Twenty years earlier she would have not accepted this situation for so long! She would have been gone within the first six months on the job.

The decades later she seemed to be less adventurous and take more calculated risks. The fact that she was responsible for another human being made her more reluctant to hop from one job to another.

In the past four months she had twelve job interviews, always hoping to land on a better position that would allow her to live the life she wanted. She made it to the third step of the recrutement process, the interview with the VP, CEO or COO. The feedback she was given, was always the same. They all loved that she had experience, liked her personality, praised her skills, but expressed their concern that she might be overqualified and that the job was not challenging enough for her to make her stay.

At one point, seeing she was not going anywhere with her job hunt, she started to doubt herself and her value. It was frustrating to see employers were favouring less experienced people because they had to pay them less.

As annoying as that though was, she realized she had to tailor her resume to each of the position she was applying for. Thus, one by one, she took of her resume her master and bachelor degrees, then she mentioned only some of her previous positions. It felt like wiping out some of her past, deleting a part of her identity, as she believed that she was the product of all of her previous experiences.

The past eight months haven't been kind on her. Life had thrown a lot of obstacles on her path, one more challenging than the other. A lot of unexpected turns, rejections, sick days, herxes, relapses, trips to the ER, unreasonable expectations from superiors, burn out, etc. In spite all these, she kept going. She wished to have a remote control allowing her to put the world on hold for a few days, so she could catch her breath and take a break from holding the fort.

As she drove on the highway, she recalled bits of a conversation she had with some friends a few days ago when they pass by :"It's all about supply and demand!" , "It's a failure of government!" ,"Who's to blame?" , "George Carlin said best: It's a big club and you ain't in it!" For some reason she knew that all of these statements were partially right. This was by far the Blackest Friday she had ever had.

TBC

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

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check out my GALLEA online art gallery page HERE
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Lavi Picu is an interdisciplinary artist, currently residing in Montreal, Canada. She is an emerging visual artist who uses painting and poetry as alternative forms of self expression as well as pain management therapy for Lyme disease. She is also the author of four soulful collections of poetry.

@2022 Lavi Picu aka Lyme Poet. All rights reserved.

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