It had been a long day; not really a bad one, just long. Most likely it was due to my being distracted by plans for the evening ahead with some old friends. It was a week previous that our friends Sandy and Tim let us know that they were going to be spending this coming weekend in our city and wondered if Bill and I had plans. It wasn't only going to be the two of them, since Sandy had already arranged with Barb, another old classmate to meet in a local motel for an informal reunion. Sandy's job had her making the trip and since her project was going to bridge over the weekend, she convinced her husband Tim to join her.
When Sandy first called, I was immediately excited about their plans and anxious to see my old friends again. It wasn't long though before I began to wonder about Sandy's husband, Tim, a guy that she had met and started dating while we were in college together. All of we girls thought that Sandy had found herself a great guy, someone that seemed to dovetail nicely with Sandy's interests and attributes. And on top of everything else, he was the cutest and most handsome guy that she had ever dated. In a word, it was hard for us all to not be jealous.
Many memories of times past had crept into my head all day, recalling things done years before in and around our school days. After school, we had all scattered in different directions and as always happens, keeping in touch and staying close had become increasingly challenging. It was all of these thoughts that had been swirling around in my head all day, providing some welcome distraction from the normal day-to-day activities at my place of employment.
In fact I had been so busy daydreaming on my drive home from work that I had completely forgotten about my husband Bill's deck project at home until I had actually pulled into the driveway. It was only then that I remembered he had taken the day off to remodel the well used and worn deck in the backyard of our recently purchased, older home.
I had no sooner pulled into the driveway when Bill came bursting around the corner, anxious to proudly show me the results of his efforts all day. The day had been quite warm and Bill's T-shirt was very obviously evidence of his work on our back yard project. He had a big, though tired looking smile, a very good sign and just that much nicer a greeting upon my return home.
"How was your day Vicky? I was really anxious to tell you how things were going and then when I didn't hear anything, figured that you must have just been too busy to call. Anyway, the part over there that was in fact more solid went much better than I expected it would, making things so much easier than I had thought."
We had talked at length during our planning for the project and I knew that he was very apprehensive about demolition of a newer section of the deck that was adjacent to our garage. His concern about disrupting things that he didn't want to get stuck with re-doing was something that had come up often. Now I was pleased that it had, in fact, gone better than expected. I told him that everything would be OK and as usual, his early concerns were unfounded. Honestly, we had been through this sort of thing many times during our time together and I think it was his way of pushing himself to carefully plan and be prepared in order to alleviate any chance of things going wrong. He was talented and capable; his work all day a testament to just one more of his talents.
I smiled in acknowledgement and winked, which was our little signal that quietly said, "See? I told you so; nothing to have worried about."
"Hon, I'm going in to get changed and put my sweats on; it's way too hot out here in the sun like this," I complained.
"Are you still heading downtown tonight to meet with Sandy and Tim?" he asked me.
"I am, Sandy and Barb said they'd be there around eight."
We had discussed Bill's going along but both decided that since the group had planned something more formal for Saturday evening, his joining us tonight was totally up to him and his schedule. Tim had already told Sandy that he was going out car shopping and as long as Bill didn't really know my friends all that well, showing up as a couple tonight just wasn't that important. It would have been nice, but for him to break away from his project was just unnecessary, especially considering that he seemed as though he was still in the mood to keep working.
"You guys won't miss me then?" he asked, more out of kindness than out of uncertainty.
"No, it's OK. Things are going so well here that you should just stick with the deck. Besides, you'll get enough of us tomorrow," I assured him with a mischievous smile.
He looked up, smiling back and I headed inside to get changed.
Just as I was reaching for the door, Bill asked, "What time are you heading out again?"
"I don't know, around seven-thirty, seven forty-five, something like that."
"Sounds good," as he turned and returned to his task.
Happy to be in the house and out of the warm sunshine, I headed for the bedroom. I had worn an outfit that wasn't exactly warm summer attire and my time out in the yard made it feel like I was in some sort of shrink wrap, so heading into the bedroom to peel off my work clothes couldn't happen fast enough as far as I was concerned.
Finally in my old well worn sweatpants and T-shirt, I walked back to the kitchen to check out the day's mail. With nothing very interesting or unusual, I set it back down and walked over to the refrigerator for a chilled glass of water. Water in hand, I eased past the mail piled on the kitchen table, grabbed two of the new magazines and headed for the coolness of the living room, anxious to spend some time paging through for a quick check of what might look interesting.
After paging through the first magazine and perusing the headlines that interested me, I reached for the second one, having saved my favorite for last and as I did so, heard the back door open. Sounds told me that the bathroom door then closed and I flipped through a few more pages.
I was surprised when I heard water start running in the bathroom, especially so when my ears told me that the tub was being filled. Assuming that Bill's day had suddenly been long enough for him, I didn't think much about it and then it suddenly dawned on me that it was still early and from what he had said earlier, it sounded like he still planned on working for a number of hours yet. I realized that possibly he had hurt himself badly enough to quietly though quickly, head for the bathroom where he could start his own first aid, keeping it to himself.
I jumped off the chair and headed for the bathroom door and speaking loudly enough for him to hear me over the cascading water, asked "Honey, are you OK in there?"
"Yeah Vic, I'm fine, why?"
"Are you sure? I was just surprised that you were in so early and worried that maybe something bad had happened," the concern in my voice obvious.
"No, no, it's OK. Things went so well today that I figured I've earned a break," he assured me.
"All is well, not to worry".
"OK, good."