The Long Saturday

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellow,

I woke up early today, from a long detailed dream. I will spare you the details, save that I was a traveller on a bus full of strangers who were all lovely and nice to me. At a rest stop, me and the other travellers got to know each other and a man taught me a card game called, "Bumflu"*.

When I got up, there were a lot of things that needed to be done to prepare the house for Caro's return. I tidied the kitchen, took down the projector, changed all the cat boxes, took out the rubbish, loaded the dishwasher, fed all the little creatures and tried to change the sheets in the spare room.

"We're in here," said DG and Crashy. 

Fine. Fine then. I did laundry instead. 

I watched more episodes of "The Haunting of Hill House" and a movie. I had a nap. I checked the spare room again.

"Still in here," said Crashy and DG.

I hung out with Punky. I put the laundry through the dryer and hung up anything that would shrink. I made lunch. I ate lunch. I made late-lunch. I checked the spare bedroom.

"Hi!" said Crashy and DG. 

It was about 7pm at night when they finally left. 

"Hi!" said Smokey. "I'm here now."

Fortunately he wasn't on the bed. So I stripped the bed and changed the sheets. Punky started howling outside because HE wanted to be in there. 

Smokey took the hint and left. So I let Punky in and he explored EVERYWHERE. I vacuumed around him while he went around the entire bed, with his nose pushed into the pillows. 

I put the sheets into the laundry and put the previously washed laundry into the drier. 

But Caro was late. The trains were cancelled and she had to take a stupid, stupid bus. Plus her back was playing up and she couldn't get a seat on the bus. 

I ordered delivery dinner and emptied the vacuum and fed all the animals again and checked the spare room again.

"Hi! We're back!" said Crashy and DG. 

This was okay. I took a shower and went to meet the bus. Caro looked TERRIBLE when I saw her. On the verge of tears in pain. We walked (very slowly) back to the house. I gave her dinner, but she felt too ill to eat it. We watched some tv and I brought her extra pillows and she started to feel a bit better. 

All the same I stayed up with her to make sure she was ok.

It was about 11 (and way past my regular bedtime) when I got to bed. And I thought back on that morning and it felt like days before. 

"I barely remember experiencing Bumflu," I thought. 

And that was my last thought before I fell asleep.

S.

* I so wish that this was a real game. I now feel I need to invent it.