Author: Joshua R. Simon

Omicron is here, and the following is a short story I wrote about my anxiety regarding the variant. Names are fictitious and any resemblance is pure coincidence.

An Uneasy Feeling

After a long journey, Caleb Haines could finally bid farewell to his fall semester at Penn State. He had just finished cleaning out his bookbag inside the Williams Building club room. Piles of crumpled up worksheets and long forgotten notebooks now rest next to him in an overstuffed garbage can. He would have to leave soon, but a comfortable lounge chair told him to stay.  

He noticed a stillness in the air. This once bustling common room—full of laughter and conversation—had now adopted an unusual, almost eerie personality. It was quieter than Caleb had ever remembered. Christmas lights flickered in silence against sparkling tinsel; clubs had decorated their desks before leaving for the holidays. Caleb watched them with his eyes unfocused, reminiscent…  

Last semester was spent online after an unstoppable plague had forced the world into lockdown. It was not an ideal way to begin his college experience. What meaningful connections could you make when trapped behind a computer screen? That’s why whenever Penn State announced that their fall semester would be in-person, Caleb’s insides leapt with excitement. He hit the ground running that August and joined every club that piqued his interest. It meant a rather busy schedule on top of his already considerable amount of course work, but he persisted through the last bursts of autumn sunshine, just happy to be on campus. 

There was a noise outside the room. It sounded like garbage bags being waved open, and Caleb figured maintenance had begun their nightly routine. Considering this a sign, he stood up was about to leave when he noticed someone had printed out an article from The New York Times.

"OMICRON: What We Know about the New Coronavirus Variant"

In just a few weeks since discovery, Omicron has turned out to be highly transmissible and less susceptible to vaccines than other variants.

By Carl Zimmer and Andrew Jacobs

He did not continue reading. “There was no point in worrying yet,” he told himself as he walked across campus and into the student parking lot. His was the only car left, and he shivered at the thought of having to scratch off the ice and snow blanketing his windshield.

What would come, would come… and he would have to face it when it did.