Quirks

Friday, February 23, 2007

Collette watched the shadows of squirrels running up and down the telephone poles that morning, shaking the wires against the lightening sky. She hadn’t ever before recalled seeing so many squirrels.

A tall woman came to the office door that morning, after ringing the doorbell four times in the space of ten seconds. Collette hurried down the stairs to open the door for her. The woman wore glasses and a long black leather jacket and was carrying two boxes.

“Hi, uh, is the person who works with your seniors here?”

Collette soon found out that she did not mean senior citizens, but senior high. She explained that Jimmy was out of the office. The boxes were for the fundraiser auction. One label read that it contained a doll collector’s item.

“Could I leave him a message?” The woman asked.

Collette brought her upstairs and handed her a notepad and pen.

“Is the building always locked like that?” She asked.

Collette explained that it usually was if there was only one person working at the time, like herself that morning.

“I’m just going to write down here,” she took the pad and pen and went downstairs.

Several minutes passed.

“White out?” Collette heard her call from the basement over the din of the copier.

Collette walked downstairs and handed her the white out.

“Sorry,” she said, still sitting at the table, “I just have this thing about crossing things out. Must be one of my OCD things.”

Several more minutes passed. Collette wondered what kind of a lengthy note she must be writing.

“The name’s Jimmy?” She called again from downstairs.

“Yes, Jimmy Saint.”

Several more minutes…

“Thanks; have a good day.”

Collette walked to the top of the stairs once again. She was gone; the door soon slammed shut behind her. Collette walked down the stairs to retrieve the pen, white out, and note pad. She hadn’t even left a note. After all the writing and white-out, no note was to be seen. Collette returned the items upstairs and wondered who the lady was in the first place.

At about 11:20, Rose came into the office with her Spanish textbooks and a can of peaches, which she opened and quickly ate before folding the bulletin. Later, Stephanie came in to help. And Judah, after going out to lunch with Barney was talking about how Evangeline had bought them tickets to “some Afro-Brazilian dance thing” at Wash-U for that night. The plans people had for their weekends…

Later in the day, in the quiet of the office, Collette took a lunch break over Dostoevsky. It was unnaturally quiet that Friday afternoon.

In the evening, OLeif and Peter went out for some old friend time. Peter had already asked OLeif to be a groomsman in his wedding that May, and it had been a long time since they had caught up on each other’s lives.

Meanwhile, doves lighted in the tree branches of the backyard. It was good to see doves again.