An Unexpected Kindred Spirit: A Short Nonfiction Story
WORDS BY SHERIDAN PHILLIPS & ART BY BRIE DARK.
The world was going around and around. The chair spinning quickly. When it stopped I was facing the brick wall. But my head was still spinning; I had made myself dizzy. I closed my eyes and allowed my head to keep spinning. It didn’t last long and soon stopped. I opened my eyes and found myself focusing on a black millipede that was about half way up the wall I was facing. The millipede was about as high as the office table was. I could hear the vacuum coming from the garage as my partner vacuumed clean the filters of the air conditioner. But I still watched the millipede. He looked lost. He turned his tiny head this way and that like he didn’t know which way to keep climbing. I can relate to you little guy, I thought. I don’t know which way to go either. Where am I going in life now? This coronavirus has changed everything. The future is uncertain in so many aspects. When will things be normal again? Will we be living a new normal when this is over?
The millipede moved his head to the right. That is the direction I’m going, he must have thought. He slowly climbed over the ledge of the brick and continued his journey. Does he know that he is in my house? Does he know where he is in the world? Where am I in the world? I know I’m in Adelaide, in my house, and my house is near the beach. I have not left my house in 34 days. This pandemic has uprooted so many lives. Those people may not know where they fit in the world now. Lots of us have lost our jobs and daily routines that made us feel like we belonged in the world. Now we are shut off from the world. In our houses. Does this little millipede feel like he has a home? Or is he a nomad? How far does he go in a day? I go about as far as my backyard, which to be honest, isn’t that far because it’s a small backyard. We have started to grow our own vegetables. Beans, peas, spinach, spring onions, and pak choi. They are all small sprouts at the moment, and it takes some work to keep the weeds away from them. That’s about as far as my outdoor activity goes. Sometimes I wander up the driveway though, mostly just to check the mailbox; there is rarely anything in there for me anyway.
I am not sure what, but something brought my focus back to the millipede. He was making his way closer to the door, his head moving from side to side. Is he trying to escape? I want to escape, too. Being in the house for 34 days is not a fun experience. There are only so many things you can do inside your house. University work is a good distraction from the world around me though. It’s the only normal that I have left right now even though it has all been moved online. I think study and university is some peoples only normal right now. The work takes time, and even though it is hard, I do enjoy writing essays. It is a productive use of my time and it is furthering my life, which currently seems to be on a stand still like the rest of the world.
The millipede has made it a brick closer to the door. But he still has a few bricks to go. Does he know the world is in a pandemic right now? Can he feel how eerie the world has become? Because I do. From my house you can see the trams going past. They used to be so full. Now they are ghost trains. The most people I have seen on one of those trams is four people. I’ve made it a game to count the number of people on the tram when it goes past. It’s easier to see when it is dark out because the trams are lit up so bright. A yellow glow comes from inside the tram and you can see the dark shadow of someone sitting on the seats.
Why am I thinking about a millipedes life right now? Am I that deprived of social contact I’m imagining an insect’s life? It has been 34 days since I’ve been in the presence of anyone besides my partner, his brother, or his parents (we all live together on the same block). But thankfully, since we’ve only had one new case of the virus in South Australia in the past four days, I can finally see my family! I’m so excited that I spin the chair again. I’ve missed my family so much it hurt. I’ve been dying to give my dad a hug and to gossip and catch up with my mum. Tomorrow I finally get to! And my twin sister! We used to have a weekly lunch or dinner just to catch up and it’s one of the things I’ve missed doing the most since this lockdown. We get to have lunch tomorrow! We can’t go out but we can get some takeaway and have it at home. I’ve missed just talking to my family. We aren’t very good at keeping in contact when it is a texting relationship. I really hope that this lack of new cases continues so I can see my family more often. I want to be able to go see my mum for Mother’s Day in two weeks. South Australia is doing the best responding to the Coronavirus. We’ve only had four new cases in the past seven days compared to the rest of the country. Western Australia is the next best state with only 11 new cases. But on the other end of the scale New South Wales has had 79 new cases in the past week.
The millipede has three bricks left till he makes it to the door. He’s making his way to our dining room. At least this isolation has let me explore my hobby of baking. I’ve made sourdough bread which is a lot harder to make than it looks. I still can’t get it to rise properly. I’ve also made pita bread from scratch which is really easy. For Orthodox Greek Easter the other week I made pita bread to go with the charcoal BBQ my partner was cooking for everyone. Because of the restrictions we couldn’t invite anyone over so it was just the five of us; myself, my partner, his brother, and his parents. It was still a really great Easter. There were many laughs. This week alone I have baked Lady Alice cookies, chocolate Anzac cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. I made an apple crumble last week and I have so many more family recipes I want to try. I want to make some chocolate mousse, banana cake, chocolate self-saucing pudding, and a crème caramel flan.
The vacuum cleaner had stopped making noise a while ago and I had noticed the smell of polish in the air.
‘There is a millipede on the wall!’ I tell my partner happily as he walks back inside from the garage. I turn to him and see that he has polished the top of Charles, who is our vacuum cleaner.
‘Where?’ He asks, looking towards the wall.
‘Right there,’ I say, pointing at it. ‘He’s been crawling, he’s made it one and a half bricks along.’
It takes my partner a few moments to spot the millipede but when he does he walks right up to it and picks it off the wall. Holding the millipede in his hand, my partner then walks to the glass sliding door to the backyard, opens it and throws the millipede out into the darkness that is nine o’clock at night. He got to escape my house before I did. As far as I can tell millipedes are tough insects. I do not think being thrown will hurt him so I hope he makes it to our new veggie garden. He would be happier there in the dirt with fresh veggie plants to nibble on.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2020.