the flu has flown

 

Coffee with the professional woman in an eatery.

"I'm noticing a lot of people are getting flu, or pleurisy, or coughs, or different things," she said.

"I've noticed it too," I told her. "In fact I'm noticing far more of it than during the supposed Covid 19 pandemic a few years ago."

"What does it mean?" quoth she.

"It means something," I answered cautiously. "It might be the cumulative effect of Covid and flu vaccines distilling new forms of the flu into the general population. Or it may be a detrimental effect of those same vaccines on herd immunity. Or it may be Russian President Putin or Chinese President Xi or both, releasing flu viruses into the Western biosphere."

There came the sound of screeching brakes on the street.

An adjoining diner leapt up with their mobile phone ready to film.

"I'm convinced," I told the professional woman calmly, "that if an atomic bomb fell on Kilcullen right this moment, there would be gulpens at their windows trying to get a good camera angle on the mushroom cloud."