The Orange & the Blue
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
It was the day Carrie-Bri was coming home from New York City, and the day before Diana left.
Their visit with her had been good the night before; they had gone over in the pouring rain of the night. Diana had served up a little dinner for OLeif and then while he and Mr. English played pool in the basement, Diana and Collette had pulled rocking chairs up near the fire and discussed many things over hazelnut toffee. Diana was ecstatic; her dream was finally coming true. And at nearly midnight, they said their goodbyes, with the hope of seeing each other the following month when the Moss’ came from Australia.
Collette had Italian herb bread in the bread machine, with the never eaten pasta from the night before, for lunch, as soon as OLeif returned home from running his errands. The past several weeks he had not gone in till four on Wednesdays, and it was a peculiar thing.
Another odd thought struck her – if there was a person roaming about with a small job, enough to pay for rent, but no food, how might one do it? By inviting oneself to every wedding reception possible, which would cover at least Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays if one timed three receptions each day… and there would likely be even more on the weekdays. One could easily live off such a thing and then spend the rest of the meals using pennies on fruit at the Market downtown, and then collecting quarters, (as in “The Terminal”), from leftover shopping carts at Aldi or other transportation carts at various places. It would be an interesting experiment, although she could never quite picture herself carrying off such an escapade.
There was once again that bittersweet wave that came over her. That thought of knowing that life was passing too quickly and that there would only be time to look back if she did not enjoy each day as it passed. There would be memories coming back all too fast as the months and years rolled by, but everyone had their time to live. And she could only hope that it would be a pleasing thing to God. And that with all hope… when it was her time to leave, she would be assured of seeing them all again, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Then she could go peacefully.
The evening was coming to a close as the rain continued on and the temperatures dropped. Carrie-Bri’s plane was to have already been landed ten minutes, and several of the roads were flooded by that time. The weather was threatening peculiar flooding for January. It was most unusual.
Collette was not really interested in heading back to work the next day just yet, so the idea of flooded roads seemed promising… except for the fact that she did not wish to spend a full day Friday or Saturday, working seven hours on the bulletin. Thursdays were good days to work – getting to the end of the week, but not actually working on the weekend. It was a more pleasant way of going about things.