A Beautiful Surprise

Everyone except my roommate is in bed now. The weekend is officially over now. This is the time of the week that I hate the most. The kids are in bed early because they will have school tomorrow. The girlfriend has been preoccupied all afternoon doing laundry and getting ready for the upcoming work week. My roommate works on Sundays, so he is in and out all day, and when he finally gets home for the evening, he is usually in a bad mood and generally no fun to be around. He'll sit in front of the television for hours tonight reading books and working on the computer as if not going to bed at a reasonable hour will delay the inevitable Monday morning sunrise. There is a silent sadness that hangs over everything on Sunday nights here at the house. Weekends are never long enough, and it seems as if the work/school weeks are getting longer. The tall kid, the short kid with glass, and the taller pretty girl are all sleeping in the same room tonight. It's like they know that the weekend is over and they are hanging on to their freedom for just a few hours longer.

The weekend was rainy, too. The rain prevented outdoor activities, so we were all inside together for three days. Ordinarily, this would have been pretty stressful for me, but something wonderful happened Friday evening. Out of the blue, the short curly haired girl disappeared for the night! One of the girlfriend's buddies who was home for the weekend from a vo-tech school in Alabama asked if the short curly haired girl could come to her house to spend the night. I almost fainted! Someone actually wanted the short curly haired girl to come to their house! Naturally, I thought it was a hoax. But then Alabama showed up at the house, and the girlfriend started gathering the short curly haired girl's things. Soon, they were all going downstairs to the car. I ran outside to spy, and as I watched, I saw the girlfriend putting the short curly haired girl's car seat into Alabama's car. I grew excited, and yet, I still wasn't convinced. The girlfriend picked up the short curly haired girl and put her into the car seat. I watched as she kissed the kid goodbye. This was too good to be true! The car cranked to life and Alabama backed out of the driveway with the short curly haired girl in tow! The girlfriend came back inside and my roommate stood on the balcony watching the car drive off. I, on the other hand, stayed outside in the driveway for at least ten minutes waiting to see if the car would come back. Once I was satisfied that she was gone, I skipped back up the stairs and into the house. Freedom! Freedom! Unexpected gifts are always the best surprises!

I slept like a rock that night.