The People Who Are Gone

The ChickieNob and I continue to do our indoor walks every afternoon. We’re still listening to The Magicians, trying to match it—moodwise—with different cities. When we were in Antarctica for the book, we walked through snowy Stockholm. When we were in the Neitherlands, we walked through Rome.

One day, while marching briskly through virtual Sicily, I realized that a bunch of people were wearing masks—mostly over their chins. The video had to have been made in the last year and a half; likely only a few months ago judging by the weather. They were gathered in crowds watching buskers, sipping Aperol spritzes at sidewalk restaurants, wandering in and out of stores.

Statistically, some of the people we were seeing were now dead.

That is true of any video on YouTube. Those people in the background will die at some point, and a person watching a video of a street scene in the future is seeing people who are possibly gone. But with COVID-19, it is extremely likely that some of the people we are passing on the street have died from the virus. Almost 3 million people are missing from the world due to the pandemic. 115,000 in Italy alone. During a 40-minute walk, we pass hundreds of people in the streets. It seems likely that a few are counted among that 115,000.

It’s a sobering thought.

Like I said, it’s not unique to the pandemic, though the pandemic certainly puts that idea front and center in the mind. It makes me sad when I catch their smiles, glimpse laughter, note a kiss.