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A Heated Conversation About Wearing Masks

[additional-authors]
October 30, 2020
Photo by Sebastian Condrea/Getty Images

The heating repairman knocked on my door at 9:00 a.m. which in Soprano Time is the middle of the night but that is neither here nor there.

My building’s Hausverwaltung sent him and I was grateful cause it’s autumn and this is Berlin and it’s going to get frigid cold  soon.

I opened the door, still in pajamas.

“Guten Morgen” I said. “Would you mind putting a mask before you come in?”

“Ich habe keins.” I don’t have one.

“Kein problem, I have a clean one for you.” I fetched him a brand new blue paper one.

And I extended it to him.

He stared.

And then, in the slowest, most deliberate German I have ever heard—like when you are so enraged, you speak slowly and it’s even more terrifying then yelling, he says the following.

“I. Will. Not. Wear. a. Mask. While. I. Work. Do you understand me?”

“Wow. Really? It’s just that we’re in a world pandemic? And my apartment is small? And I’m scared—“

“Let me repeat myself. I do not wear masks. You are welcome to go in another room and distance yourself. Or you can call another repair company. ”

“Do you have a health reason?”

“Ja.”

“What would that be.”

“I will not get into a discussion with you. You can call another heating company.”

He picked up his tool box and walked halfway down the building hallway stairs.

I panicked. It had taken me weeks to get this appointment. What if it got really cold and I couldn’t get another apt. for another 3 weeks?

So I called him back. I threw open the window of the kitchen, where the heating box is, and invited him back in.

Reader, he walked into my kitchen and slammed the window shut.

I do not know how else to say this—I felt, in my bones, that he wanted to punch me in the face.

It was the aggression in his energy.

I hid in the other room and shook with rage while he worked.

When he was done, he told me he’d need to back come a second time.

“OK” I said.

I was polite to him because I was afraid.

He was a strange man and I was alone in my own home with him. So I feigned calm and politeness as women have been trained to do since the beginning of time. In order to not die.

Later I called Hausverwaltung .

“Frau Korkova. Are you aware that there is a world pandemic?”

Silence. “Frau Hershkowitz, how can I help you.”

“Please answer the question.”

“Frau Hershkowitz, do NOT speak to me like a child.”

“It’s a yes or no question. I’ll repeat it. Are you or are you not aware that we are in a pandemic? I’ll wait.”

Heavy sigh. “Yes.”

“So you are aware. I am also aware. Herr M from the heating repair company is not aware. Do you think it’s acceptable to refuse to wear a mask in a clients home?”

“I will call Herr M to find out his side of the story.”

As if there are two sides to “Refuses to Wear Mask”. Very fine people on both sides, dontcha know.

Frau K calls me back.

“I spoke to Herr M and he says he did not find himself to be aggressive at all, and furthermore, he worked alone in the kitchen with the door shut so there was no health risk to you. From our perspective, it is his choice whether he wishes to wear a mask. “

“He said he has to come back though” I said, my voice shaking. “And I do not want anyone in my flat without a mask on. I only want my heating fixed, and I want to not catch a deadly illness in the process. “

“Sorry, there is nothing we can do to help you. We have no other repairman but him. We find his decision is perfectly reasonable.”

Reader, I sometimes get a little spicy on the interwebz but in real life, I do not have a quick temper.  In real life, I am slow to anger. It takes a lot to make me lose my temper. But when it happens, it scares people.

So I let out my inner scary Romanian at her.

I’m not proud of that. Even if she deserved it, shouting is almost never effective.

She hung up on me and refused my calls afterwards.

Afterwards, my sweetheart who is a native speaker helped me write a very dignified letter auf Deutsch.

A crystal clear letter, explaining that Covid aerosol droplets can remain in the air for up to 3-4 hours and this is why I kindly request a repairman who agrees to wear a mask.

And yesterday, a young repairman from a different heating company appeared at my door in a mask. He fixed the problem in 15 minutes.

I was so grateful I wanted to throw my arms around him, dance with him, invite him to stay for a bowl of homemade chili, but Covid, and also he scurried out swiftly with a tip of his hat.

The heating repairman made my day.

Even if he personally didn’t like wearing a mask. He did it so I could feel safe. The epitome of kindness. Of gentlemanliness. Forget gentlemanliness. Gentle-PERSON-liness.

This is what we humans get to do for each other.

It’s how we say “I don’t know you but I love you and your life matters to me.”

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