Did the Pandemic Ever End?

I’M TRYING TO remember the time of day I started reading Chi Rainer Bornfree and Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan’s new book The End Doesn’t Happen All at Once: A Pandemic Memoir. I know I was in Houston. I know there was no sun in the sky. I remember my feet being cold. Most of all, it was the last time I asked the question, “What are we doing with this pandemic, other than trying, by all means necessary, to forget it?” I’ve been reading and rereading and feeling and fighting The End ever since that time of day I somehow can’t remember.