Monday, November 05, 2007

TIME



It was only three hours, but it seemed like a small eternity from the time I watched him walk away from me into that little circle of children to the time I pulled around to pick him up. I didn't really know what to do with that great expanse of time. I kept checking the mini-van clock to find that only a few minutes had gone by since the last time I checked.

I went to Trader Joe's and bought champagne and bananas. (This reminded me of the time a friend of mine had just broken up with her boyfriend. She was so distraught by the breakup that when she went to grocery store, she walked out with nothing but pasta and ketchup.) Only I wasn't exactly distraught (well, maybe a little); I was actually in a state of magnified awe. It was just so QUIET without him, and time just stood there, SUSPENDED.

I had time to go to vintage shopping, where I found very substantial, cobalt-blue margarita glasses and a shabby-chic, comparmentalized wooden thingy that I decided would be perfect to house all his art supplies. (Pictures to come.)

When I went to pick him up, he seemed shell-shocked, and out of my fold. I asked him what he did at school, and he couldn't exactly explain it. (I'm sure it had a lot to do with foreign-to-him things like sharing and taking turns.) This line of questioning was going nowhere, so I just asked him what I really wanted to know: "Were they nice to you?" He nodded yes, but he did so with a nasty scowl. What does that mean? I couldn't decipher it, but he hasn't said he doesn't want to go back, so I have to interpret that as a good sign.

0 Things not left unsaid: