Corona Saga: Lock Down - 24th Day

Twas the 24th Day of the Lock Down. Twas tedious to recount the times, but Cone Man remained cone-stant. Twas tedious because house arrest had ceased to be an exciting novelty. Twas tedious because week days and weekends became blurred together. Seven days a week you could sleep in as if it was Sunday morning, so what was luxurious about sleeping in? Monday morning was merely another morning, and 5pm on Friday was not the end of another weeks work. In a world without regular work, even rest had lost its allure.

Worldwide, one  hundred and fifty thousand people had died. This great and grim fact tempered the temptation to transgress the boundaries of the restrictions of the Level 4 Lock Down.

Temptation may not have to be resisted for long. Cinda had hinted that the government would change the alert level to Level 3 with effect from the 23rd of April, and Cone Man was counting the days. 

Napoleon Bonaparte had once derided the Union Jack Tribe as 'a nation of shopkeepers'. The 'shopkeepers' defeated his navy in 1805 and his army in 1815, before sending him St. Helena in the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. The All Black Tribe, dwelling in the vast expanse of the South Pacific, could not be described as 'a nation of bakers' they had bought 1.4 million kilos of flour to make bread to fill many an otherwise tedious hour.

The All Black Tribe was nevertheless becoming listless. Fewer exercised than had done so in the first weeks of the lock down. Many became depressed. Partners became grumpy. Business people struggled as livelihoods shrivelled away while they were trapped at home. People had been compliant and "played nice" but they were beginning to turn sour.

Outside the strange Antipodean world of the All Black Tribe the 'Grapes of Wrath' were multiplying and being trodden out in the great vats of humanity in. 22 million workers in the Land of the Stars and Tribe had lost their jobs in the last four weeks. Protests against the lockdowns were beginning to be held in various places within the borders of  that mighty tribe.

John Brown had lived to make men free, and troops marching to terrible battles had cried "Glory, glory, Hallelujah" on their way to death. Cone-sidering the huddled masses yearning to breathe freely in the Land of the Stars and Stripes Tribe, Cone Man grimly wondered when the blood red wine would begin to spill from the great vat ...