Friday, March 13, 2020

The mall is usually far busier on Fridays than it is today. All the stores are open, though signs on the revolving doors tell us that, because of the virus, everything but the supermarket and pharmacy will be closing early until further notice. Inside the supermarket, a rack of challahs sits mostly untouched. I start to take one. using a plastic bread bag to grasp it, but it is still too hot to hold. I decide to come back at the end of shopping. I do more stocking up just in case. I get a one-kilo box of matzahs, even though Passover isn’t for another month. They are often much cheaper just before the holiday but, since people who tend to take vacations on Passover will be staying home, there may be a shortage. At the pop-up Shabbat food vendor’s table, I get items at the end-of-the-day prices. The veggie cholent and the beef and rice stew will freeze well. At the registers, the young North American dudes from the business college are buying six-packs of Corona beer. I think that’s the thing that they call “irony.”