After, in the chaos of everyone leaving the gym, I greeted her. She looked really sad and I put my arm around her shoulder and said I was happy to see her.
She said, "Something really sad happened."
"What happened?"
In the noisy gym, I thought I heard her say, "My brother died yesterday."
I felt like I'd been punched. She was at school!?! I thought she just had two little sisters. Maybe I hadn't heard her correctly.
"What happened?" I asked again, leaning down close to hear her in the noise.
"My bunny died," she said.
Hopefully my intense relief didn't show because a dead bunny is sad. I hugged her again and said, "I'm sorry. That is sad."
But I was so happy.
***
I have this watch that I've had a long time, probably 15 years or so. I like it.
I've had a few repairmen, when I take it for a new battery, tell me that it isn't going to last and is going to die. Then I find a new repairman. It's a whole pattern.
On Monday, I noticed it had the wrong time. I started spiraling. I just replaced the battery last summer--I remember because I had to find a new repairman. It shouldn't need a new battery. Was it finally dying? I didn't want to get a new watch! I like this watch!
Then I realized the second hand was still moving and the watch was exactly one hour off. I had forgotten to switch it from Pacific time.
The moral to these stories: sometimes things aren't as bad they seem.
1 comment:
I wish you had been with Liliana when her bunny died a few weeks ago. You probably would have had more empathy. I could only be happy--one less animal to worry about. I don't think I even told her I was sorry. I just said, "We just bought a whole bag of food! I guess you can give the food to Morgan." Morgan was happy to get it for his new rabbit.
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