I sat, transfixed by the passing scenery. The colors were magnificent. Early fall had to be my favorite time of year. There was something about all the seasons that I loved, but the colors of fall made everything look so magical. The repetitive rhythm as the train sang across the rail seemed to put me in almost a transitory state.
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As usual, I was running late. Commuting forty miles to work and laying brick six days a week tends to get a little tiring. So, last Friday night, I was ready to kick back, eat take-out, and relax with a few cold ones over a ball game on TV. It looked like a spring storm was on the way, so I was hustling to get home. Keeping the house after my divorce had set me back financially, so I needed all the work I could get. I was concerned with how I could afford to send my daughter to college next year.
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As the only female doctor on staff at the health center of a large midwestern university, my work has afforded me numerous occasions when I'm asked (even begged) to describe certain of my work experiences to "the girls"---four girlfriends whom I've known since college. We gather three or so times a year at a spa or for a cruise or just to kick back for a few days away from husbands and boyfriends and, now, a couple of kids among us.
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I had talked myself into a job I was in no way qualified for, and, as the first order of business, I got sent halfway across the country and landed in a hotel in downtown Chicago. I looked around my room, a room that teetered on the border between blandness and overwrought luxury, and decided that I should stop watching Sportscenter, and go find some dinner.
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It was turning out to be one of those parties. Sex was in the air, which was fine--the bedrooms upstairs, she had been informed by a giggling friend, were all ready to go; the master bedroom, down here, was open for anyone who wanted to enjoy the heaps of people already there, enjoying each other. The house was packed, an enormous house, too, with probably six bedrooms, a pool out back, and enough bathrooms to make the mind stagger.
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"I think we can dispense with these," he said, casting off his human visage. I followed suit, and we both took a few moments to stretch our wings, swish our tails and stamp our broad clawed feet, feeling the life pour back into our neglected bodies. We were the only two of our kind on Earth, and it was rare that we got an opportunity to relax into our native forms.
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David Miller got home that Friday evening from work to find his wife of twenty-two years waiting for him. It was obvious from the expression on Michelle's face that something was wrong. As he sat down in his recliner, David wondered if he'd put the toilet seat down that morning before leaving for work. But whatever the problem, he'd learned over the last two decades that his wife would tell him in her own good time.
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My son is in the 2nd grade and his school was having their teacher/parent conferences. For those who might not know it is where parents are invited to spend twenty to thirty minutes talking with their son or daughter's teacher about their progress during the year. Now my boy is a good student and we hadn't received any complaints from the school so our conference was a formality at best. Knowing this my wife didn't reschedule her yoga class and opted to miss it.
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She had been walking for a good hour down the deserted road. A small midstate highway that got little or no traffic. She was feeling dusty and discouraged. She hadn't seen a ride in hours...except the one that had passed her by , the only sign of recognition a small grubby childface sticking its tongue out at her as it zoomed by.
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Katie hummed to herself as she strolled down the hallway, her small arms holding a large basket of laundry braced against her stomach. As she reached to door to the laundry room, she pinned the basket to the wall as she dug for her key in her pocket. As she produced the tiny key, she lifted a knee to help her shaking arm bear the weight of the encumbering load as she struggled to slip it into the door. As the towering basket tipped to the side, a sock fell off onto the floor.
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