Me Time is We Time
Sometimes I just gotta listen to the call.
A week ago, Jenny wanted to walk with the grandchildren in the afternoon and wondered if I wanted to go along. The question was posed while I was writing. I wanted to say, “Let me think about it for a while, and I’ll get back to you.”
When I’m writing, I consider it ‘me time’, and I’m challenged to budge. Jenny then added that a new thrift store has opened in the town, and it would be good to go and support them. That end remark ensured the outcome.
If there’s a place I do not like to be, it is a thrift store. I was not overly happy to see J smile on this occasion; I knew exactly what it meant. That smile genuinely means I’m fucked. It wasn’t a question at all. That smile said, fuck you back; you’re having too much ‘me time’.
I wasn’t giving in. “I’m thinking, honey, it would be good for you to have some ‘girl time’ with your daughter.” I said seriously.
Jenny’s reply felt as serious. “Do you think I need any advice on how to do ‘girl time’?”
The conversation was dropped because I was killing a character under tons of rubble during an earthquake in Panama. It might have been a couple of hours later, I was beginning to feel the pang of hunger. Half an hour later, I was starving. I checked my watch. It was an hour after the usual time when Jenny would bring me something to eat.
The thing is, I was at a critical point in the story; my ideas were flowing, and I couldn’t just walk away from the action. Then I forgot about it for a while and wrote on.
Then he was dead. The deed was done. I’d killed on the bloody here, unintentionally. Fuck! Oh well, it’s done. The pangs of hunger were beating like bones on a drum skin. Wherever is Jenny?
I checked in the garage; her car is still there. Okay, well, she’s not gone too far. I opened the refrigerator and picked out something for lunch.
As I was smacking down on my sandwich, I started thinking about this ‘me-time’ conversation. I finished my sandwich lunch and returned to what I was doing.
The clock picked up speed, time rapidly passed, and soon Jenny would arrive with a piece of cake and a cup of tea. That is the routine. It had changed. What, where, oh, yes, the walk! I had forgotten all about it. Again, I looked at my watch. It was 3:30. I’ll put on my jacket and head after them, they will visit the new Thrift Store, right?
Arriving at the store, I asked if two blonde women with a fair-haired child had been in? No.
I’ll check in the park; the child loves going to the park — he’s like a panting puppy when he sees the swings. Nope. They are not in the park. I just remembered that I needed to check the garage before I left. I walked up and down Boulder’s Pearl Street.
I was concerned; my walk became an unconscious glide, getting there but not watching the street for traffic kind of glide. At this point, several calls to her cell phone were unanswered. I did tell Jenny to go and have some ‘girl time’, and my joining in might not be welcome. My ‘me-time’ might have been a misadventure.
I’m on my own for today.
I want to find them and have some ‘we time,’ but I sit alone in a Boulder café. It was after 5 pm when I saw them, or they found me, to be fair. They looked so thrilled with themselves. I grabbed hold of my grandchild.
Jenny said to the little wonder. “Tell Granddad where we’ve been?”
|“Granddad, Gammy bought me a new car!”
I laughed. “That’s great, do you want to show me?”
My daughter holds up her hand, jangling keys with a grateful smile on her face.
“You mean, wait, you bought a real car?”
“Yes, honey. Your daughter picked me up, and we traded in the old one. They need something a little bigger,” she said, with that smile that speaks to me, ‘go fuck yourself.’ “I didn’t want to interrupt the ‘me time’, love.”
“Without me? Did you get a deal, a fair price? Did you haggle? Was the trade-in price fair?”
“Love, stop, you’ll blow a gasket. Do you want an ice cream?”
I could have held off killing my hero, given up a bit of ‘me time’ for a bit of ‘we time’.
There are huge advantages to ‘we time’. A message I’m likely to pay attention in future.
More from Harry:
Adrienne Beaumont, The Sturg, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Trisha Faye, Karen Schwartz, Nancy Oglesby, Katie Michaelson, Bernie Pullen, Michelle Jimerson Morris, Amy, Julia A. Keirns, Pamela Oglesby, Tina, Pat Romito LaPointe, Brandon Ellrich, Misty Rae, Karen Hoffman, Susie Winfield, Vincent Pisano, Marlene Samuels, Ray Day, Randy Pulley, Michael Rhodes, Lu Skerdoo, Pluto Wolnosci 🟣, Paula Shablo, Bruce Coulter, Ellen Baker, Kelley Murphy, Leigh-Anne Dennison, Patricia Timmermans, Keeley Schroder, Jan Sebastian 🖐👩🦰, James Michael Wilkinson, Whye Waite, John Hansen, Trudy Van Buskirk, Robert Bush | Dixie Dodd
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Thanks for reading.
