Wednesday, October 7th, 2020

The boss emerges from his office. He bellows, “We have ten. Let’s go!” Most of the men in the office come out of their cubes and head down to the hallway for the afternoon prayers. We have a couple of more people now. One of the programmers with the virus has officially recovered and returned. The boss’s son, who had been away for a couple of weeks, is back. We meet in the hallway. Before starting, we count again. Only nine of us are there. One worker, who has filled in before, has decided not to today. That’s OK. There’s no pressure. People get on their phones and try to reach the usual guests elsewhere in the building. The insurance agent, the building manager, and the dentist all are away. A few other people have shown up on occasion, but we don’t know who they are. We stand around for a while. One of us circles through the office to be sure that we haven’t missed anyone. We haven’t. Someone remembers that, a couple of weeks ago, a guy with a yarmulke came through. He told us that he worked in a new office down the hall. The worker standing nearest to that office heads over to ask. It works. He emerges with the new person. The boss makes sure to get his name and phone number. He switches his phone to the liturgy app and faces forward. The prayers begin.