Border Patrol: How is it that you three went to school together?
On the ride out here, she told me about a book... something about searching for rose (the wine)... and a couple traveling with a friend who is hilarious and a womanizer to... search for rose (the wine). I'd like to read it after she's done, because she recommended it. Guess who the hilarious womanizer is. How ya doing?
So we're back together... another sort of triple threat, if you will... with the addition of Stina's sister Jess, and spent a big exhausting day in Vancouver and came back to chat and enjoy libations with John and Lynn, to laugh at hiccups etc. etc.
At one point in the evening, Christina slammed her hand down on the dining table. "I don't care. We're going to have pillow talk tonight. It's going to happen." It's not very often that Paul and I exchange bewildered looks without erupting in laughter. We were confused, for slightly different reasons. She went to... contain her excitement, to get more wine, to get some pillows... I don't know, but when she was out of earshot, I whispered to Paul,
"... ...what does she want to pillowtalk about?"
In a regular situation, my answer might have been.
"Bitch, I don't know!"
"Hell if I care!"
"Whatever I want, ho!"
...and so forth. But we were tired.
So we stay up - Paul, Jess and I - quietly listening to soft music, writing letters, searching for lost computer files, sipping more beverage... winding down, one might say. After some time, Jess goes to change into sleep clothes, and Paul disappears shortly after.
Jess came back into the room with her hair tied up. Paul returns with the slightest, most reserved of grins on his face.
"Hey, where's Christina?"
"She's asleep."
It's strange to remember that I'm in Canada now. And with the Beimers at their house, and not at Sandy Hollow sitting outside of their camper as a sweet escape from campus life. The Pacific Northwest is agonizing in its beauty and I'm doing my best, also, to soak in familiar friends in their settings. It's exhausting, the thoughts that constantly stem out from being in the same vicinity with everyone here, everyone I'll hope to spend (more) time with for the duration.
Anyway.
I watched a family in Vancouver earlier tonight. They were young - mom, dad and son. I think they were Chinese, but we weren't close enough to hear what they were saying to each other. They sat upon newspapers that they brought along to wait for fireworks. Just like us, and the 500,000 others. Not a lot of people reading this will know really what I'm talking about, but the young Asian couple... dressed in bright colors, simple garments... very skinny, and looking as if they can live efficiently, as if they're sensible around a calculator etc. etc. Tiny people really, all three of them. Stina reported that the mom and son could comfortably sit on one newspaper square together. They laid back against the gently brushing waves, the sun and water matching each other in exploring the possible colors as the evening dripped away, and the boy rolled about his parents. At one point, the father put his forehead against the back of his son's as he sat quietly on his lap. The child was, no doubt, mesmerized by the dancing water and the father might have been exhausted, working tirelessly to give his family the best start that he could provide. They sat like that for what seemed to be ten minutes. The boy's hair was the same as his father's - cut short to reveal the same efficient, simple head with nothing to hide from each other.
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