Northern Light

Her day was filled with non-stop non interlocking images.  There was the rabbit in the kitchen, the very small boy sitting at the table with the laptop; his little legs straight out in front of him; how old could he be, maybe 5?  Lunch conversation had circled from the lovely almost spring like day which had everyone exclaiming – have you been outside?  And then walking around with no coats on at all, even though March, as we know it is the most unpredictable month.  And so from daylight savings to a comment about living in a tent in Norway several years ago and how the northern light drove her crazy, and then it spiraled downhill fast to suicidal statistic in the suicide belt and then farmers with guns and bad health and depression and then the agricultural amputations in the machinery.  No! No!

Isn’t it bad enough that at some lunches she listened to stories about birthing a horse and how it just “plopped” into one's lap or about hogs copulating, or fishers being so vicious or the hen that lays eggs in the house beyond an eight foot snow embankment and now the eggs will be there for who knows how long?

And in between the deadlines, the conversations heard from cube to cube, the violent sneezing fits, the crouping coughs, the limping, the lamenting, the beautiful sad dog with the blue eyes and the gimping leg who gets walked every hour but doesn’t pee, the girl who brought chili to work because her father and stepmother defrosted it ( it had been made from the garden last summer) but they decided they didn’t want it so gave it to her, but it had kidney beans in it so she made chili and brought it in to share, and then the woman who just went to Cozumel, but had a bad airline experience and had to stay two days in Ft. Lauderdale waiting for a different flight, but still she brought in excellent dark Mexican chocolate to share.  And then there was a birthday but no one knew it, and she didn’t really look her age, the other women commented as they attempted to do knee bends against the wall just for the heck of it, but oh how their knees hurt getting up.  And of course then she had to be given a balloon, because after all, it was her birthday, but then someone accused someone else of withholding the birthday information, but that wasn’t fair –she didn’t know, and then there was all the crap about star wars and the mocking about caverns in pop culture.  And then the deadlines.  The newsletter, the annual report, the 4 panel brochure, the monthly state reporting, the post card print order with all the bleed line problems and the big red REJECT proof or the calm green one that said ACCEPT.  And indeed the weather was so balmy and wonderful to do the 15 minute loop around the plaza, but then someone was mocked for wearing the coat outside.  And the incessant phone ringing, and the freezing internet and the computer warnings, and the deadlines, and the inferences and the mocking….and 5 o’clock was so long in coming.