Commitment Kept

Dearest Rachel –

This is something I hardly need to tell you, as you always meant what you said when you said it, but… one must never make an offer to someone that one isn’t prepared to back up.

Now, this isn’t to mean that I have just done this; when I got the text yesterday, I was actually pleased to note that Kerstin had taken my offer of transportation seriously. But after having just showered after an extended workout at the gym (yes, I gave up and put myself through that, after all), I had to admit, I was in no mood to leave the house right away, especially in the midst of a fairly serious summer rainstorm. So I declined to convey her to Wednesday night services at her other church. But while going to church (especially someone else’s church) is more of an option, going to work is an imperative, so I agreed to drive her there this morning – despite the fact that it would likely require getting up before six (which, while it happens more often than not, and certainly more often than I’d like, rarely requires me to actually do something at that hour).

Ironically, circumstances contrived to make this a bit easier than it might be of an ordinary evening and morning, so maybe this was meant to be. The internet went out in the house (as it tends to do during storms, which is particularly unfortunate, as those are the times when one would most want to curl up in the house and do nothing but play online with the computer, as you would well attest to) somewhere between eight and nine. This basically precluded Daniel and myself staying up until some ridiculous hour watching this or that Lets Player; and in fact, he disappeared upstairs for a while, so I decided to just move to the bedroom and catch an early rest. The next thing I knew, the internet was back on – which I could tell from the noise emanating from the family room across the entirety of the main floor of the house – but it was also well past midnight. So I’d gotten four hours’ sleep already at that point. I checked in on Daniel, who seemed to be quite happily ensconced in whatever it was he was watching (but not so much so as to be unwilling to give me a customary good night hug), and suggested that he turn whatever he was watching down a little bit, as I could hear it from the bedroom, which he apologetically did.

The point is, I got myself a decent amount of sleep such that I could get up and get on with the day however early I needed to in order to get her to work on time – indeed, I could be up with time to spare, if need be. The thing is, once we did get there with half an hour to spare, we decided to turn back for a little bit of breakfast (and I had to fill up my tire yet again – after all, it had been about forty hours since I had to last), and as a result, we actually got back there a couple minutes after seven. She assured me that the few minutes wouldn’t make much difference, as she’d apprised her superiors of her transportation situation, but it was still mildly embarrassing, given that we had made it there early already.

***

Of course, agreeing to one leg of the trip basically committed me to the return voyage in about four hours’ time. But rather than stay there or head back home until my usual reporting time at the ‘office,’ I simply sent a quick text to let the folks know I was going to be a little early.

Okay, two hours early.

But if I was going to cut my ‘work’ day short like that, in order to retrieve her once her work day was done, I was going to need to get started on mine as well. Not that there was anything particularly pressing, to be sure, but I did manage to get at least one new thing up and running before I had to head out, so that’s something worthwhile.

***

I had just closed everything up, turned off the computer and climbed upstairs when I got a message from her saying that she would be needed for an extra hour, so I didn’t need to rush back over there to collect her. Which would have been much more appreciated had she contacted me maybe five minutes previously, but it’s not as if it could be helped at that point. I hung around the house for maybe half an hour while Dad went through his ‘mealtime’ ritual – and discovered that, while he doesn’t taste anything when it’s fed through a tube, he can tell when something is hot or cold, and that he prefers it be somewhere between the two instead – before heading out, and arriving at her workplace with some twenty minutes to kill.

Thank heavens for smart phones and internet connections; in what seemed like no time at all, she was waiting for me to let her in.

For what it’s worth, I brought her back to the house first – we had some leftovers to make some progress on that I thought she might enjoy (unlike us), and she had asked about that first episode of Yorimoi that I’d already shown Ellen. so I wheeled that out for her. I’d forgotten that no one (apart from Kris) has really seen the bedroom since having put in the new television until I’d shown that episode to Ellen; now it was Kerstin’s turn to react to it. In retrospect, I wonder if I shouldn’t be glad that neither of them made any sort of crack about whether I might be compensating for something – although maybe I am; just not the obvious thing.

We didn’t stay much longer than that; Daniel was upstairs, taking a bath, and we decided to restore the privacy of the whole house to him. I drove her home, and she talked about frustrations both at work and at home. I think she really wanted to use your bequest for the house, but it looks like it may have to go into the car, to some extent, unless the insurance comes through.

Keep an eye on her, honey, and wish her luck. I think she might need it more than I do, for the time being.