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Hero

We all need heroes, especially in times like this. I too had a hero. COVID happened, and he disappeared.

He lived in the building in front of mine. Many mornings I would see him wade out into his balcony to take his towel. Just this act made him a hero to me, or rather the manner in which he did it. He always came out on his balcony in his birthday suit. I have difficulty coming out on the balcony without my wristwatch! This man had guts, gumption, conviction... all the eyes in the world could not shake his resolution! But he was not an idiotic Don Quixote, charging madly with his lance at the windmills of the world. He always came out at such an angle that you could only see his back. He was challenging the customs of a world sensitive to what they see but insensitive to what they feel. Brave and intelligent, brown when in the nude, he was my hero!

But from this March, when COVID reached Chile, I have not seen him. Where has my hero disappeared? Afraid of the disease, does he now come out fully clothed? If he does, I admit, I cannot recognize him, nor can I recognize his apartment. But I cannot believe that he, the hero that gives scant regard to restrictive social customs, would be terrified of a puny virus! At most, you could expect him to come out on the balcony wearing nothing but a mask.

No, he must not be hiding inside. I believe he must have taken the first flight to Italy when he heard of the outbreak because that is where heroes belong: at the frontlines of the battle! Did he go through the airport security in his birthday suit? I do not know, but if he did, the airport security would definitely have been happy to see him. Much less frisking needed, unless they wanted to. He must have reached Italy, he must have registered his name under medical volunteers, and within no time he must have been in one of the hospitals battling COVID. I have this image of him wading into hospital rooms wearing nothing but a mask--- oh yes, he is brave but not stupid, and a hero does respect government rules--- and raising the spirit and courage (and perhaps other feelings) of the medical staff and patients.
 
He must have then travelled country to country, appearing wherever he is needed most. But I wait for the day, when all this is over, to see him reappear on his balcony one morning, a little whiter since he was out of the sun for so long.  He will come out as usual, hang up his mask and take his towel. That is when I will know for sure... that it has ended... that the world has been saved.



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