Final

Friday, April 13, 2007

Another fine cold day, that Friday the thirteenth.

And it was, officially, Collette’s final day at the office. Four years, five months, one week, and six days later, she was turning in her keys. They rattled into the envelope that she left with a note for Ivy in her box.

And there were another seven hours of finishing training Forget-me-Not. She had a very southern way about her. She reminded Collette somewhat of Monday Nutmeg – soft southern accent (nothing over the top), thin and trim, very well-kept styled hair and make-up, clean-cut stylish clothes (nothing original, just nice), simple jewelry, exceptionally clean well-cared-for hands… Collette had definitely not been raised in the south. She didn’t blow-dry her hair every morning or meticulously put on make-up and earrings on a daily basis. But that seemed to be a southern trademark. Forget-me-Not also ate lunches of bagels and yogurt. Forget-me-Not, on the other hand, was definitely not of Midwestern stock.

Come the afternoon, Collette and Forget-me-Not worked on attendance. Collette helped her through the sign-in sheets from Sunday. Many of the names were illegibly printed or written in such a way as to be confusing as to whom was actually present from which family. So Collette read them each aloud while Forget-me-Not marked them as “present”. Judah was working on Ivy’s computer, typing madly. Finally he spun around in her chair:

‘What is this, your hit list?” He asked.

“Yes, it’s our black book,” Collette told him, as they continued to check off names.

Then he realized they were marking attendance.

“I was just waiting for my name to come up next,” he laughed to himself.

Come evening, Collette shut off the lights and machinery for the last time. Her desk was cleaned of “Collette things” and it was time to go. Out on the parking lot, Dad and Francis greeted her. They were preparing to head down to Sunshine Mission with Jimmy, Judah and Evangeline, and a number of the youth to feed dinner to the homeless. They would also be playing music and singing with them.

Later, just before picking up OLeif from work, Collette walked outside to the car. The skies were very dark in the south. And there was an eerie quiet everywhere; odd colors. The rain would be coming.

Meanwhile, she and OLeif ran errands, including purchasing upcoming birthday gifts and Trader Joe’s sorbet; OLeif had been waiting to try it all week. On the way home, as the rain began to spout a bit, OLeif talked about the music coming from his iPod – old down-south bluegrass sort of tunes.

“It reminds me of old times with my family down in Texas – 70’s green furniture, tightly woven fabrics, catfish fries, brown grass, always brown…”

And not much later that night, it was time for Collette to hit the feathers. She had decided to accompany Rose early the next morning to the exam of all exams. Hopefully Rose had also remembered “lights out” early that night.

It was a quiet day to end another “era” of life.