In the end it’s no more than a pinprick, but into it has gone the world’s hope and desperation — the former more than the latter, I believe, but you never know. 

The second will come four weeks from now, and then … what? A sort of freedom, to be sure. But still no old life as we know it. 

Maybe in time, when enough of us have had what I was lucky enough to get yesterday, and that due not just to science and ingenuity but also to the kindness of a friend, who alerted me to the arrival of vaccines in a hospital where I had not checked for them. 

It was a longer drive than I would have liked … but it was worth it.