COINCIDENCLY

The man and his sister when they were little.

The man's phone rings.

We are in the market of all places...

so I whip a mechanical pencil out of my purse and an old receipt to write on.

I am prepared to take down any important information.

But he nods as he tells whoever he is talking to that he is familiar with the place...

and hangs up.

It's a job.

I can tell its a job.

Its about freaking time!

But its not just any job.

It is his idea of a dream job...

The place he recently told me that he would truly like to work at if he could choose.

I can't understand why he is not leaping and hopping for joy.

Then he says

"Baby, you know what this means don't you?

When everyone else is leaving to go hunting...

I'll be working."

There it is.

"I'm sorry I'm letting you down."

He's not worrying about him missing the first day of hunting.

He's worried about ME missing the first day of hunting season.

He thinks I am disappointed.

Pppffft!

It's a job.

The most important thing that either of us need.

Income.

Insurance.

Security.

Happiness is a warm paycheck!

He apologised for letting me down.

Nice.

But I don't feel let down.

I feel elated and relieved.

And happy for him.

Its not the only day in hunting season.

Its just the opening day.

Once he is used to his new schedule,

there will be Sundays when he can hunt.

So we hunt one day a week instead of two.

Clearly I don't have hunter's fever.

I am happy under the circumstances to wait.

What I don't want to do is go without him, even though Todd would happily take me.

But...

There is one icky thing about the job.

It's graveyard shift.

I walked him out to the truck and we said  good-byes

until morning...

and I immediately made sure the house was locked up tight.

I am a big chicken.

I am glad that I have Roxy here to keep me company and safe.

The only problem is that she gave up on me hours ago and went to bed.

So much for company.