It finally happened

Someone who'd ostracized me during Covid said it out loud: "You were right. Never again."

It was maybe the most humiliating moment of my Covid life.

Summer 2021, the Twitter-ban era: a friend of one of our kids came to our house to play. When they realized I - not my wife - was supervising, the child’s parents told us they were uncomfortable and would retrieve their kid immediately.

They weren’t joking. They arrived in minutes. They made a three-point turn in our driveway so they were facing out and wouldn’t spend any extra seconds close to me.

I watched their child run to their car, watched it disappear down the road, thinking: Now my kids are paying the price, too.

—

(THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.)

—

Yesterday the mother of that child told me I’d been right about the lockdowns - and about Covid generally. The conversation wasn’t long, but it was long enough. 2020 and 2021 had been incredibly difficult, she said. She didn’t like how frightened she’d become, she hardly recognized the person she’d been, and she felt only now had she recovered.

What if they do it again, I said. You know next winter, or whenever, they’re going to try.

The mom didn’t laugh. She did something better. She smirked. No way, she said. No masks, no lockdowns, she was done with all of it. Yes, you were right, she said, but your tone was assholish sometimes -

I know, I said -

But you know, I feel kind of assholish these days too, she said.

—

(Those were the days)

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She’s the first person I know personally to flat-out admit I was right. I thanked her, and I meant it. I was surprised how good the vindication felt.

Our kids hang out again now, too.

We’ll talk about the mRNAs another time.