Our Country Friends

Two weeks pass and everyone stays at the House on the Hill as the crisis in New York City worsens. Everyone hears on the news and social media about the rising COVID-19 numbers and the overwhelmed hospitals, and they feel both happy and guilty to be safely tucked away in the countryside. With two weeks having elapsed, Masha ends the social distancing rule. The Actor now regularly touches Masha’s knee at dinner and she lets him. Senderovsky’s cough grows worse, although it is not COVID-19, and he struggles each day to understand his daughter and picture the world she will live in as an adult. He is also constantly anxious about the return of the black pickup truck, convinced that the driver is a right-wing adherent bent on terrorizing his family and friends. He is also paranoid and guilty about Vinod’s novel, which he knows is missing from its hiding place. Vinod, meanwhile, keeps in touch with his fellow restaurant workers and tells himself that if it weren’t for Karen’s presence, he would leave the House on the Hill.