Roommates

Hallelujah: There ain’t a cloud in the sky and the weather forecast has been revised. The next five days are expected to be decent; Beth and I will not be noting the locations of the sharps.

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Wednesday morning Beth woke five hours after me. She had breakfast and then I took her on my #1 walk. We came home, I washed Sheba’s filthy feet, showered and then we went into the village to meet Patsy for lunch.

After lunch, Beth went shopping with Patsy and I went to the local bike store and met Wiley, from whom I bought a used 21-gear bike for my guests to use to get away from me.

Late in the afternoon Beth and I had a hot tub. I discovered, in response to a request, that I have a no nudity policy (except when solitary) in the Spa.

Then came the time of the day I like best. I watched two episodes of Escape to the Countrywhile Beth got under some blankets on the deck. Then I made dinner, we ate, we talked and then went to bed.

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On Sunday, a dear and long-time friend died. I found out Wednesday. Harry was my grade nine English teacher; when we met, I was fourteen and he was twenty-five. It was when I returned to my high school to be a teacher, like Harry, that we became friends.

He was tiny, he was second generation Chinese Canadian, he had an unbridled and unlimited passion for the arts, he giggled a lot and he was one of the most influential people in my life. We became friends and stayed friends until it felt too onerous to visit him as he declined. I spent this morning crying and writing to mutual friends and Harry’s nephew. He was ninety-one.

I sat in the second to the last seat of the row closest to the doors into my English 9 classroom and one afternoon as I sat in class, I started going white blind. Slowly bright white shimmering light was all I could see. I was scared to death but afraid to put my hand up and ask for help because I wouldn’t be able to see if it were me that he was looking as he said. “Yes?”

Suddenly I felt a hand on my back and the soft voice of Mr. Lock in my ear: “Is everything okay?” 

That was my first contact with the man (and the beginning of years of migraine headaches).

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Thursday, I worked on my script in the morning and some work for the Arts Council while Beth worked on her computer in my studio. We had lunch at Robert’s, got some supplies and came home to nap and do more work before I went to puppy training class and Beth made dinner.

We had a delicious salad Beth had made for dinner and washed it down with pie from the Pie Lady here. And then we watched Manchester— well, James Norton — before going to bed.