Logorrhea

 

“Are you afraid of catching something?” I’m in the locker room, desperately trying to get out before the 15-minute deadline. I’ve got my black mask on, as usual, and guessing this is what this woman is asking me about.

            She’s not wearing a mask. Obviously. I’ve talked to her before, but she doesn’t remember me. She likes to talk. A lot! Older white woman with scrawny legs and pot belly. You know the body type, right? And, she’s got logorrhea. Diarrhea of the mouth. I learned this word in a Netflix film called, Wedding Season, where the protagonist won spelling bees in his youth and his prospective love interest quizzed him with the word, Logorrhea.

            “Logorrhea. L….O…..G….O….R….R…..H….E…..A. Logorrhea. Otherwise known as diarrhea of the mouth.”

            This woman had extreme logorrhea. I wanted to avoid getting into a conversation with her, but I had to at least respond to her idiotic question about mask wearing.

            “Yes,” I shouted through my mask as she stood waiting in the doorway.

            “What are you afraid of getting?” she asked. “The flu…or a cold…. or???”

            “COVID.” I said, turning toward my swim bag to stuff more shit in it.

            “COVID?” she repeated puzzled.

            “Yes,” I sighed loudly but she probably didn’t hear me since I had my mask on. “People are still getting it and getting sick and dying from it….”
            “Oh, yeah.” She didn’t make a move to leave. “I had it at Thanksgiving. I went to my brother-in-law’s house for dinner and I got it then. And no one else was wearing a mask and when I….”

            I tuned her out. I really had to get out of there before the lifeguard’s started shouting at me to leave: “Are there any Ladies LEFT?????!!!!!!”

            But I had to wonder, if she had gotten COVID and she knew that it was still around, then why was she questioning me about my mask.

            I told Ian about this exchange and he said that if people have already gotten it and didn’t get very sick, then they think it’s no big deal. Why wear a mask? “But people are still getting sick and dying,” Ian continued, “and they’re not all just old frail sick people. Young people are getting it too.”
            “Yes,” I agreed. “And I have so many friends who have been SO desperately sick from it, with long covid and multiple instances of contraction of it and work missed and debilitating loss of energy. It’s frightening.”

            I do think Ian is right though. People who have gotten it and not gotten sick just don’t get the mask wearing. Little do they know that they might get it again and get sick. Or they might be carrying it and give it to someone who is immune compromised and kill them!

            I’m not being dramatic here. It could (and I’m sure it has) happened.

            So, not to be a paranoid anti germ person, but in crowded inside areas with no ventilation like locker rooms or the grocery store, wear your mask!

            You could just save your life.

            Or someone else’s….