Meeting people in lockdown – I

And now we are 5.

She: P is coming over. 

Me: How?

She: If stopped. She will tell – is out to get medicine from the chemist near our home.

Questions shot from either end of my brains – ‘What’s the hurry?’, ‘Why today?’ & the most relevant ‘Wasn’t P in Manali before she got here?’

She: P quarantined herself for 10 days. Like she could read my mind, then added, ‘Plus P is my bestie, I have to see her’. 

Case closed. 

She: (a matter-of-fact tone) M & G will be stopping by as well.

I shot her a look. Lockdown – section 144 – gathering of 4 or more people & all that jazz. 

‘It wasn’t planned-’ she retorted, ‘we were chatting, it slipped out that P is coming over. & M invited herself over. I couldn’t say no’. 

‘And G?’, the words spilled out of my mouth without thought. 

‘M & G are a couple!’ she exclaimed while giving me a ‘what’s wrong with you?’ look. Hopelessly I rest my case. 

And now we were 5.

Next part, tomorrow.