Adam Oster, Novelist

At the time of writing this, I’ve been back from my wife-imposed exile for a few days. And it’s been a really weird period in my life. In case you don’t have the back story, my wife tested positive for COVID a few days before we were to perform in this little murder mystery thing I wrote. She and another one of our cast members, actually. And so, because I was playing the character who basically ran the show, we were all a little concerned with the idea that I might also come down with the plague, and my wife and I made the hard decision for me to hide out in a hotel for a few days, until the performances were done.

For 72 hours.

If you’ve read recent posts, you’ll know that I found myself in this incredibly weird headspace where I really didn’t know what to do with myself, feeling helpless that my wife was at home with the kids, who as of that point only one of which had been exhibiting any symptoms. While I am all for the concept of the show going on, I also didn’t like feeling like I was abandoning my wife while she was struggling to even get out of bed, much less be able to attend to the needs of our children.

I’m still not sure I made the right decision on that one.

But I’ve been home for a few days now, and, well, things feel almost normal. Almost like no one was ever sick or exiled from the house or anything. Outside of all of us feeling a little extra snuggly, and the one kid who tested positive being stuck at home for the week, things almost feel back to normal.

Which, in some ways is good, but in other ways, it makes it almost feel like the 72 hours in which I was struggling to do anything at all because I kept feeling like I should be present while my wife worked through her illness was all for nothing.

Like, I probably should have used that time to get some homework and writing done instead of pacing my hotel room floor wondering how much of a jerk I’d be if I just went back home and got sick.

Which, I should also note, I’ve abandoned all safety procedures for myself now that I’m back home and I’m still not exhibiting any symptoms and tested negative just a couple days ago. That’s not to say I won’t suddenly wake up with all of the COVID, but so far it seems like those 72 hours away were probably an entire waste of time and money.

But, what are you going to do? I obviously can’t go back in time. And I still feel really bad for my wife having to deal with those 72 hours alone. And now I’m playing catchup on the things I didn’t get done while I was stuck alone in that hotel room with all of the free time. Like school work.

Oh well…at least I’m out of exile. I really missed these obnoxiously loud faces.

Just don’t tell them that…