Help

Gregory was happy to hear his older brother's voice. He looked down at the list he had been making when the call from Vancouver came. It was a list of 2020 oddities, life upside down for all, and for some, tragic. A year of big grief, fear, uncertainty that the experts only made worse. Gregory, his small family, they were fortunate, overall.

The brothers hadn't spoken in a couple of weeks, both still not working, he too self-quarantined with his wife and two kids. Gregory's neice and nephew, teens like his son, were having the same kind of crappy pandemic year, everything ruined, birthdays, holidays, graduation uncertain, Zoom school making everyone miserable. It's been a hot mess, 2020, whole world feels it. "John, I was making a list when you called. What's the weirdest thing for you this f'ed-up year?  We've been lucky, bro, nothin' terrible, right?"

There was a long silence, as Gregory's brother pondered the question. "I got an underground haircut from a neighbor in our apartment building laundry room. It was like scoring drugs!" They both laughed. Gregory recalled how, back in Aprll, he spent an hour comparing on-line ordering for toilet paper sources. When they finally arrived in September, they didn't even need the jacked-up mini-rolls that showed up- a total rip-off, during a crisis, no less. The whole year was not as advertised, they agreed, and it's not over yet, more to endure.

What Gregory and wife didn't know- because their son hid it so well- was how depressed the boy had become- even his friends and cousins didn't know. That wasn't on Gregory's list, the evil year's terrible toll still uncounted. Thank God, they found out in time to help the lad.