1 Maggie & Bill

Maggie & Bill had been married for forty-three years and in all those years they had hardly ever had an argument. They lived on the ninth floor of a block of council flats in Camden. A small modest two bedroom with a tiny balcony that looked out over the grim North London estate.

Their son Andy had moved out to Hayes in Middlesex when he got married and ran a pub there called 'The Crown' with his wife Jan. They had three lovely children called Darren, Victoria and Emma.

What Maggie & Bill loved most was routine. Every Wednesday night they went to a faux Italian restaurant in Parkway ordering the same thing each week. Prawn cocktail, done the proper way with mayonnaise and ketchup, followed by lasagne served with chips. Maggie would have a half a lager and Bill a pint. They would share a tiramisu and then walk home together.

On a Friday they would go to the local pub and have two drinks each and then on Sunday Bill would drive them out to see Andy and Jan and the grandkids.

Bill was retired from his job in a warehouse and Maggie worked as a dinner lady three days a week, enough to get her out of the house and they needed the extra money to get by. Bill worked part time in the local pub two nights a week collecting the glasses. He liked the social aspect more than anything and it all helped to keep their heads above water.

They had always struggled and had worked hard all their lives but their needs were simple and they didn't stress about it. Maggie would carefully save the extra pennies for Xmas and birthdays and to get some sweets or a packet of Mr. Kipling's cakes on a Sunday to bring to the kids.

For a couple in their early seventies they weren't doing too badly. They could do with losing a few pounds and Maggie could give up the fags but other than that they were in surprisingly good shape.

Then Corona hit. It took them by complete surprise. Maggie had got herself into a right state listening to daytime TV. She listened carefully and relayed it all to Bill. Lockdowns and precautions were to be taken. 'Ahh it'll be like bird flu or mad cow disease,' Bill had said 'Stop worrying about it woman.'

Maybe he was right Maggie thought but that night she stayed up late watching the news and various broadcasts about it. That night she slept badly with nightmares of the living dead and zombies roaming the streets. By the morning she was quite worked up about it all. She had seen a report from China of people dropping dead on the street.

'Holy Mary Mother of God!' she muttered to herself.

That morning Andy called, his voice strained with worry.

'Mam, you and Dad are in the danger group for this virus,' He said 'Your age group is vulnerable so you'd better stay in for now. Maybe you should stop smoking Mam. They say smokers will end up on ventilators. Why don't you try again?'

She stubbed out her fag quite urgently after the call and felt her blood pressure rising. Andy had given instructions to stay inside and not to see anyone and he was going to order in some groceries for them. She had seen on daytime TV how to isolate the bags and boxes and spray everything wearing rubber gloves. By the time Bill had rolled out of bed she had smoked ten cigarettes and whipped herself into a frenzy.

The next days passed in a blur, stuck in the flat worried out of their minds. They started to bleach everything, washing their hands incessantly. They had made an area by the front door where groceries could come in they had rigged up some plastic sheeting using an old shower curtain and some bin bags. Then with rubber gloves they unpackaged everything and wiped it all down with disinfectant .

They became too afraid to go out. Days turned into weeks and they followed their routines in an obsessive, paranoid fashion. It put a strain on their relationship.

It was Bill's job to unpack the boxes of groceries with his disposable rubber gloves and a black bin bag worn like a poncho. When he was finished he had to take the bin bag poncho off and the disposable gloves and put them in another bin bag to be disposed off.

He then had to take all is clothes off and stand there stark naked. Maggie would then spray his whole body with disinfectant even the soles of his feet . He would then make his way to the shower. His clothes would stay by the door in the decontamination area for a few days until Maggie with her hands double gloved would put them in the washing machine on a boil wash. Quite a palaver really but Maggie was fervent about it and would get quite anxious about the whole procedure.

On Sundays instead of visiting in person they zoomed with Andy and Jan and the kids on the computer that Andy had bought for Bill at Christmas. At first the kids would all be there waving and chatting but as the weeks went by and the novelty faded it ended up being only Andy and Jan and sometimes just Andy. Jan might pop into the conversation just to say hello.

Over time the zoom meetings became quite short with none of them all that bothered about it. At first it had almost been fun but over time they didn't really have much to say to each other. Andy still called on the phone a couple of times a week for a quick chat.

Bill loved his new PC and was quite proud of his technical skills. He called himself a silver surfer but actually he used it late at night and watched porn. He became quite good at navigating his way around it due to his desire to find all this free porn. He installed the computer in Andy's old bedroom which he had begun to think of as his man cave. Maggie was glad to have some space to herself and was quite happy to watch TV on her own not having to share the remote control with Bill.

Each week they thought things would get better. Lockdown would end soon and everything would return to normal. They became confused with all the instructions and information, much of which didn't seem to make much sense.

Maggie had decided to give up cigarettes becoming more fearful each day of catching the virus. They were now doing all their shopping online and Maggie added in some bags of Haribou sweets and Ferrero Rocher to help with the cravings she felt without her fags. She had also started to knit and ordered huge amounts of wool as she knitted non stop. She planned on making jumpers for everyone in the family. It seemed to work and kept her hands busy so all you would hear is her sucking on some fizzy cola sweets and the click-click-click of the needles.

Looking back Maggie wasn't sure when things had started to go pear shaped. Bill spent most of the time in the spare bedroom and had seemed more and more preoccupied. She had heard loud noises of screeching tyres and crashing sounds. Then one day she heard explosions and Bill occasionally shouting out 'Yes! Yes!' or 'Fuck it!'.

She began to wonder what was going on. Her mood had changed radically and she had become quite pent up and irritated. She hadn't realised her mood change and was in a dark place withdrawing from the fags and in fear of her life. She had become obsessed with watching all programs to do with Corona following the government figures daily.

Knitting and eating far too many Haribos she occasionally looked quite mad. Her hair had been a beautiful auburn red due to her Irish heritage and she had had it dyed every month and as the grey roots started to show she looked a bit like an old mad Fox.

She didn't bother to get dressed anymore and would wear some stretchy pants and an old t-shirt or sometimes her nighty and dressing gown. Bill didn't bother either, wearing his pajamas all day. They had both piled on the weight and in a matter of months seemed to have lost touch with reality.