Per prompt-maker Linda:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “beside you.” Write about whatever is beside you when you read this prompt. Not when you sit down to write, but whatever is beside you right now. Take note of it if you think you might forget. Enjoy!

I noticed the prompt last night as I was turning off the computer.  As usual, my cell phone was beside me. I have a feeling this will be a common answer to the prompt. If we weren’t holding our phones close enough before this new craziness, we are now. We want to make sure our loved ones are safe, we want to stay updated on all the things going on around the world. It is a way of holding the world close. As close as a prayer. As close as an appendage.

Sure it is where we find the relief while playing a game or two as we wait for the next emergency we hope won’t come. The second-shoe-to-drop feeling that we’ve all been living during our two-week isolation. Hearing the bad news about the curve and checking to make sure it isn’t us. Knowing the numbers will probably get more personal. All that in one little tiny rectangular item. Not even as large as an envelope that our foreparents would have waited to receive to know how their loved ones were. Who knew an item a little over 5 inches could hold so much for us?

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