June 1st (Collins)

It’s a bit unnerving in my part of DC right now.

The streets are empty in a way that I’ve never seen. Even at the height of the coronavirus lockdown, there were always cars buzzing by, folks out walking dogs, drunk people singing sports things as they walk back to the metro. But right now, the streets are totally empty. The only movement I’ve seen all night turned out to be a single police officer, pacing silently around Nationals Stadium.

Where cars and people are absent, helicopters are filling the silence. They’ve been circling nonstop for the past hour or two: insanely loud when they’re overhead, fading out as they circle away on whatever routes they’re flying. It makes me feel vaguely like I should pull the blinds and stay away from the windows. (Thanks for that, Hollywood.)

Almost everything seems to be happening at a distance -- just around the corner or down the block... sirens sounding off every 20-30 minutes, robotic megaphone announcements and unintelligible yells in the distance, flashing lights barely visible near the metro station on the corner...

Guys, it’s super-weird is all I’m saying. Not a fan. I never in a bajillion years thought I’d say this, but give me back my DC traffic and drunk sports bros and incongruous pizza place techno music.
The only time DC should be this creepy-quiet is when the city gets a few millimeters of snow and everyone stays inside in case the low coefficient of friction is contagious.

Jacqueline Collins lives in Washington, DC, where she works as a technical writer and program analyst. She has published extensively in the fields of Federal Technical Regulatory Documentation That Only SMEs Will Ever Read and SaaS Online Help Websites That No One In The World Will Ever Visit.