Ratoja walked to the window of his house and waited. He looked above, from the window. Up above, the sky was blue with some clouds and some trees reached up. It was a quiet afternoon. There was no one in sight. The sky showed signs of the sun. So, did the trees. The trees swayed lightly with the wind. The clouds did not move. Ratoja looked down, downwards. There was a familiar structure down there, he could see it from his window on the 14th floor. From the 14th floor, it was clearly visible. Ratoja sighed. He did not have to think. The building was 4 stories high, and it was situated right between the 3 14 storey buildings, the 3 buildings surrounded the small building. The small building, named Satora belonged to a specific type of people, it was built exactly for that. It was made for the maids that worked in the tall buildings, the maids lived there with their families. One could see constant ins and outs from the Satora building throughout the day. It was afternoon, the ins and outs were a little low.

But, not zero. In a moment, 2 maids walked out of the main gate of Satora. Those 2 females, belonging to the age group of around 25-30 walked towards one of the tall buildings. Ratoja was somehow happy seeing this. It was obvious. He would not have to work the chores inside the house. The maids were not coming to his house, he knew that. The maids worked in specific houses. Overall, the presence of a total of 15 houses in Satora provided enough people for the tall buildings, in terms of household help and even security. The maids walked and disappeared inside one of the tall buildings, the building into which they walked was the one right in front of where Ratoja was standing, it was in front of his building.

In another 10 minutes, the clock in his house showed the time of 3:21. It was afternoon and the maid who came to their house to work must have arrived, the bell to the house rang. Ratoja continued to stand near the window. It was the routine. ‘Would you get the door’? Ratoja asked his wife, who was inside. That was also the routine. ‘Yes’, came the reply and his wife walked out of the bedroom and walked towards the door, this too, was routine. ‘There is nothing else but routine here’, Ratoja expressed to himself and waited, this expression was also routine, Ratoja looked down, from the window, towards the ground, which was far away. In an audible click, his wife opened the door, the door closed behind the maid, Dira, with a loud thud. Dira entered the house, looked around, took one look at Ratoja and walked inside, into the kitchen, she was not too brisk, she was not too slow either. Ratoja often wondered what it was. His wife walked behind Dira, into the kitchen. A minute went by and soon the kitchen and the house was full with loud thuds and clinks of the utensils being rubbed and washed, Dira talked to his wife, his wife talked to Dira, the words were lost on Ratoja, but, he caught the general tone. ‘What do they talk about? I don’t really want to get into it. I am not a woman’. Ratoja continued looking down from the window. The sounds from the kitchen continued. The thuds, clinks, words and laughter mixed and formed a mix. In about a minute, a loud sound came from the kitchen, one particular utensil, a big steel pot fell on the ground, it must have slipped from the hands of Dira, the utensil bounced and made lous noises before it settled down, this was not the first time this had happened. Ratoja did not bother to look from the window. He continued looking outside. The afternoon wore a hot, but, active look. ‘It is quite possible to work here, in this heat, in the afternoon. It may not be necessary to take a break, to get an afternoon sleep’. Ratoja continued looking out of the window.

After some minutes, he turned around and looked inside the house. The floor would soon be cleaned by Dira, under a mild supervision from his wife. It was all very desirable. Cleanliness was important. ‘I don’t know what we would do without this domestic help. They are handy and cheap’. He waited. Dira soon emerged from the kitchen and started cleaning the house, his wife followed Dira and looked around. The cleaning took the regular amount of time, it was about 10 minutes. His wife seemed to get more and more pleased as the house got cleaned, she did not have to move a muscle for it, it was a mild pleasing of her mind. Nobody said a word for a while. The cleaning was done in the usual fashion and Dira left the house, again, closing the door behind her, a loud thud could be heard. Ratoja moved and sat down on the couch.

The couch was pink and white in color and to the liking of both Ratoja and his wife. Both of them sat down on the couch. It was afternoon. They had nothing to do. Casually, Ratoja turned on the TV with the remote control. The TV came on, with the previously watched channel showing, Ratoja watched, his wife watched it more. It was some channel of interest to her. Ratoja did not touch the remote control, his wife seemed to watch the TV with interest. He let her watch the TV. The TV showed some channel with some people talking, Ratoja watched, only with the intention of being able to answer any question that came from his wife about the show. Ratoja watched, his wife sat next to him. The people on the TV screen talked in a local language, they seemed to quarrel a little. Ratoja’s eyes were on the screen. His wife laughed after about a minute. Ratoja brought up a mild smile on his face. The show continued. Half an hour went by and finnlly the show was over, or, it was his wife, Ratoja was not really sure, with some speed, he had changed the channel. It was a news channel now. “You have to pay attention now”, the lady reading the news read, “this is an important piece of news. As our nation gets trapped in this new virus, we all must act in the right way. The government has issued guidelines on what to do. It is a virus which can infect people through breathing. So, everyone must be careful. You should avoid public places if you can. You are advised to be caerful when doing so. Please wear a mask and protect yourself by keeping your hands clean. The government will keep issuing guidelines and advise. Please stay tuned for more information. You are advised not to leave the house. Stay indoors and stay safe”. Ratoja looked at his wife, she had taken in the information from the news. She looked at Ratoja. They both did not speak. A minute passed by. And, a mild commotion could be heard from outside, Ratoja quickly got off the couch and went to the window. From there, he could see what was happening. A group had gathered there, below. There were many people from the tall buildings and there were people from Satora. There were about 20 people there. Ratoja could not grasp the words, but, he could sense some things. In a minute, the group seemed to reach some kind of consensus and they stopped talking. Then, they walked towards the main gate of the building complex. They reached there and had the gate shut, completely. Then, the group waited there, with the gate completely shut. All the 4 buildings were now closed off from the world. Ratoja watched. He would now keep watching, for no one was going to come in or go out, now.