Went to Lynnmall (NZ’s oldest mall, and our local) yesterday to pick up medication for Erin.
The supermarket and the pharmacy are open, and they’re at almost opposite ends, surrounded by non-essential businesses that are shuttered. But the mall is still lit, and the holographic ads and display screens are still running, making it somewhat less apocalyptic-feeling.
There was a security guard sitting near the entrance door, but he was looking at his phone and paid me no attention, coming or going.
The pharmacy is set up like a fort. I was served at the makeup counter, which is right at the front; didn’t go into the store. “Look after yourself,” said the young woman in a mask who served me.
I got there right when they opened, and there were no other customers. Not the case at the supermarket; I was thinking of going there too, but there was a long queue (they also are opening at 9am now, rather than being open 24 hours, so that they can restock). Went to the Indian supermarket instead, and bought some maize flour and some chickpea flour, in case the story that’s circulating about the supply of flour coming more back to normal is inaccurate. I’m going to have to be creative under constraints, which often produces good results.
I would just like to say at this point that I was making my own bread before the pandemic (which is why I had as much flour as I did and have been able to last this long).
The sight of people queueing at shops for things that may not be available makes me think of Soviet Russia, though it’s nowhere near that bad. But it did lead me to a joke: “In Soviet Russia, disease isolates you!”
Mike Reeves-McMillan lives in Auckland, New Zealand, the setting of his Auckland Allies contemporary urban fantasy series; and also in his head, where the weather is more reliable, and there are a lot more wizards. He also writes the Gryphon Clerks series (steampunk/magepunk), the Hand of the Trickster series (sword-and-sorcery heist capers), and short stories which have appeared in venues such as Compelling Science Fiction and Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores.
Leave a Reply