"Rob" is the pseudonym i've assigned to a former regular on Tuesday nights. I've posted about him before. I may not have said this explicitly before, but Rob is one of the main reasons I kept on doing this after I got stabbed. For the next 3-4 months, he assigned himself as my bodyguard at the park and was never more than 5-6 feet away, and even when we spoke, his eyes were always constantly scanning the space behind me. He'd originally returned to LA earlier this year with a goal of showing up on Tuesday nights and driving for Uber. But he took a job back on the road driving a truck since the quarantine hit - he just couldn't get enough work to cover expenses.
I got a call from him earlier this evening and he told me he'd be in town next week, but that he couldn't see me. It turns out that recently his company told him to take over a run for a driver that got sick and needed to be hospitalized. They tested that driver and he came up negative for the coronavirus, so Rob took the driver's cab and finished the delivery. The other driver has since tested positive, and Rob is showing certain symptoms consistent with the coronavirus as well.
Rob is going to get tested on Monday, and to be safe, he's exercising as much discretion as possible in terms of minimizing contact with others.
With my father passing away less than two weeks ago from this, this resonates at a deeper level than it might otherwise. But Rob remains hopeful; he's accepted a new route that would allow him to be in town every week, though not necessarily on Tuesdays. I'm hoping we'll be able to see him back with us from time to time in the future.
