Monday April 20th, 2015

The exercise:

Write about something that is: delayed.

Remember when I mentioned this? Yeah, that finally happened today.

Mine:

This afternoon Sam, one of Kat's oldest and dearest friends, arrived for a visit. She'll be staying with us for a couple of nights, along with her friend Sarah, before returning to Vancouver for a little while. Then she flies back to London, where she's been living for the last several years.

All of this came as a complete surprise to Kat.

The original plan was for them to come Easter weekend, directly after Kat's birthday. But they were going to catch a ride with another friend... who's car window got smashed in the night before their departure. It took until mid-afternoon on the Saturday to get fixed, so we decided to postpone the visit until they were able to come for a longer time, as they would have needed to return to Vancouver on Sunday afternoon.

All this, by the way, was complicated by the fact that Kat listened to the start of Sam's message on my phone while we were driving back from our visit with my parents on the island. All she heard before she took the phone away from her ear was, "Hi Marc, it's Sam from London. Don't tell Kat I called..."

It did not take Kat long to figure out that Sam was planning on surprising her for her birthday. So Sam and I decided to tell Kat that she had to fly back to London at the last minute and would no longer be able to come for a visit. And then, you know, show up anyway.

The visit was delayed until today. That, my friends, is a long time for me to keep a secret from my wife. There were several times when it almost came out, many more times when I was tempted to drop hints of what was coming, but I kept my mouth shut.

And now that I've seen her reaction to Sam's unexpected arrival, there's no doubt in my mind that it was more than worth the effort on my part.

3 comments:

morganna said...

That is just so sweet. And here's a little acrostic for you. :)
==============
Waiting
And
Impatient
Time to spill the
Intriguing
News --
Gotta hold my tongue!

Greg said...

@Morganna: it's always a pleasure to read your poetry; this sparse elegant style you have, with the acrostic so effortlessly waiting to surprise the reader really makes me glad that you commented before me :) Thank-you!

@Marc: so I was almost right with the alien landings! Well done on managing to keep the secret though, and I'm very impressed that Kat stopped listening when she heard "Don't tell Kat I called". And very nicely done with letting Kat believe that the surprise had terminated when it hadn't really, that's excellent work. Though she now won't believe you ever again when you tell her something planned has fallen through -P
So... how much garden work do you have these visitors doing then?

Delayed
"Mum? Why are you so fat?" The noise level in the supermarket dropped to an absolute minimum as the question hung in the air.
"I'm pregnant, dear," said Janice, her voice holding just a hint of steel. Had her husband been there, he would have recognised it for the warning tone it was and steered their daughter away, but sadly he was across the parking lot in the launderette re-enacting a 1980's jeans advert.
"Oh." A moment of silence, and suspense while the other shoppers waited to hear if this answer would be accepted. "But you've been pregnant for nearly two years now, mum." The silence thickened, as though people were very quietly trying to move away from the epicentre.
"What's your point?" asked Janice. Her tone could have frozen cream.
"In Biology they said that neffelants are pregnant for eighteen months. Are you a neffelant, mum?"
The slap could be heard by the cashiers near the exit.
"The birth of your sister has been delayed," said Janice through gritted teeth. "Indefinitely. Like how long you're grounded for."
Across the parking lot a nearly-naked man was being escorted out of the laundrette by the police, unaware of how lucky he was not to be having to drive his wife and daughter home in the same car.

Marc said...

Morganna - thank you :D

Greg - yes, very close :P

None, sadly. They were here for too short a time. But Sarah seemed keen on returning, perhaps next year, to stay with us as a WOOFer... so she must have thought it was all right here!

Oof, I would not want to be anywhere near this one. Not in the supermarket, and not in the laundrette!