area.”
“I’m just looking for Guy LaFrance. Is he anywhere around?”
The foreman walked over to me.
“I’m a friend of his and thought I’d see if I could catch him on his lunch hour.”
“Yeah, well, you won’t find him here today.” He removed his yellow, plastic hat and wiped his forehead on his sleeve. “He’s left for Canada. His wife called and said there was an emergency with one of his kids. An accident or something. They took the kid to the hospital, and Guy flew out of here on his bike at around nine this morning.”
Chapter 10
I must have driven home, but I didn’t remember how. My brain only had room for rage and the feeling I’d been duped. Nothing else mattered.
Good old Annie. She was resourceful enough to hitch a ride home with one of her students who happened to be passing by in his car. I didn’t recall leaving her at the construction site until well into the afternoon when she found me down on my dock staring across the lake.
“I thought you’d be here, and I surmised that there was some trouble with Guy, so I gave you the afternoon to be alone and think a little. Now it’s time to talk to Annie.”
“Guy has a wife and children in Canada,” I said. “The foreman told me one of his kids had an accident, and Guy was headed to Canada to the hospital. I guess that’s what ‘he should have told me’.”
Annie nodded, knowing that the ranting and the raving, the waving of hands and throwing myself in and out of chairs were soon to come. She was right. I yelled, sobbed, threatened never again to speak to a man and promised to begin a life of celibacy if not enter a convent. It was a pity Laura festival.
Throughout this session of letting it all out, Annie continued to be there, not saying a word in judgment or trying to jolly me out of my despair. It’s one of the reasons we are such good friends. She never takes personally any of what I say during these regurgitations, and she doesn’t try to solve my problems. Nor will she hold me to any of the promises, opinions or feelings I utter. I couldn’t have a better therapist than if I trained her myself. It’s Annie’s nature to be this kind of person and my good fortune to have her as my friend, and I love her.
Feeling cleansed after an afternoon of purging, I grabbed Annie’s hands and pulled her to her feet. “C’mon. Enough of this.” I took a cold shower to bring myself back to a semblance of sanity. I was now prepared to be rational about the “Guy” thing.
“We only knew each other for a short time. We really didn’t talk about anything personal between us at all, although we did spend some time discussing politics, education, the environment, you know, all the stuff that’s supposed to be part of why people like each other, shared values and such. I thought we were being smart, going a bit slow.”
“Well the sex thing seemed pretty powerful, and you two sure didn’t go slow on that one.”
“Please, I’m trying to make myself sound reasonable and virtuous here and give myself permission to really work up a head of steam I can vent on him when I see him again. If I ever see him again.”
“Oh, sorry, I thought we were beyond the irrational section of this episode and on to drawing up a way to get beyond the situation. I mean you did take a shower, which usually signals your intent to talk things out like a normal human being.” Annie settled into her former I’ll-listen-you-scream persona.
“You’re right, of course. The sex thing kind of took over a large segment of our being together.”
“You spent seventy-five percent of your time together in the sack, and I’ll bet most of it was not sleeping.”
“Some of that time was spent in the shower.”
We both laughed. I was feeling better.
“I know I’m not very good at relationships. I either want to go too slow, or I plunge into them recklessly and quickly. With Guy I thought there was more than sex. We seemed to fit together in some
“I’m just looking for Guy LaFrance. Is he anywhere around?”
The foreman walked over to me.
“I’m a friend of his and thought I’d see if I could catch him on his lunch hour.”
“Yeah, well, you won’t find him here today.” He removed his yellow, plastic hat and wiped his forehead on his sleeve. “He’s left for Canada. His wife called and said there was an emergency with one of his kids. An accident or something. They took the kid to the hospital, and Guy flew out of here on his bike at around nine this morning.”
Chapter 10
I must have driven home, but I didn’t remember how. My brain only had room for rage and the feeling I’d been duped. Nothing else mattered.
Good old Annie. She was resourceful enough to hitch a ride home with one of her students who happened to be passing by in his car. I didn’t recall leaving her at the construction site until well into the afternoon when she found me down on my dock staring across the lake.
“I thought you’d be here, and I surmised that there was some trouble with Guy, so I gave you the afternoon to be alone and think a little. Now it’s time to talk to Annie.”
“Guy has a wife and children in Canada,” I said. “The foreman told me one of his kids had an accident, and Guy was headed to Canada to the hospital. I guess that’s what ‘he should have told me’.”
Annie nodded, knowing that the ranting and the raving, the waving of hands and throwing myself in and out of chairs were soon to come. She was right. I yelled, sobbed, threatened never again to speak to a man and promised to begin a life of celibacy if not enter a convent. It was a pity Laura festival.
Throughout this session of letting it all out, Annie continued to be there, not saying a word in judgment or trying to jolly me out of my despair. It’s one of the reasons we are such good friends. She never takes personally any of what I say during these regurgitations, and she doesn’t try to solve my problems. Nor will she hold me to any of the promises, opinions or feelings I utter. I couldn’t have a better therapist than if I trained her myself. It’s Annie’s nature to be this kind of person and my good fortune to have her as my friend, and I love her.
Feeling cleansed after an afternoon of purging, I grabbed Annie’s hands and pulled her to her feet. “C’mon. Enough of this.” I took a cold shower to bring myself back to a semblance of sanity. I was now prepared to be rational about the “Guy” thing.
“We only knew each other for a short time. We really didn’t talk about anything personal between us at all, although we did spend some time discussing politics, education, the environment, you know, all the stuff that’s supposed to be part of why people like each other, shared values and such. I thought we were being smart, going a bit slow.”
“Well the sex thing seemed pretty powerful, and you two sure didn’t go slow on that one.”
“Please, I’m trying to make myself sound reasonable and virtuous here and give myself permission to really work up a head of steam I can vent on him when I see him again. If I ever see him again.”
“Oh, sorry, I thought we were beyond the irrational section of this episode and on to drawing up a way to get beyond the situation. I mean you did take a shower, which usually signals your intent to talk things out like a normal human being.” Annie settled into her former I’ll-listen-you-scream persona.
“You’re right, of course. The sex thing kind of took over a large segment of our being together.”
“You spent seventy-five percent of your time together in the sack, and I’ll bet most of it was not sleeping.”
“Some of that time was spent in the shower.”
We both laughed. I was feeling better.
“I know I’m not very good at relationships. I either want to go too slow, or I plunge into them recklessly and quickly. With Guy I thought there was more than sex. We seemed to fit together in some
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