My current job has a four day work week, Monday to Thursday. I learned quickly to relish my three day weekend, but I left my name on the call list for Fridays anyway. I have been called every Friday but have been unable or unwilling until today. Today I agreed to drive 35 minutes east in the morning. My regular job allows me to drive west in the morning and east in the evening. It's perfect; the sun is behind me both ways.
I pulled out of the driveway with the penultimate chapter of Nikolski playing on my Ipod, my coffee, and the sun in my eyes. As I neared the corner at the end of town, before I turned down the hill, I saw a young man with a tool belt and a skate board looking for a ride. I pulled over. As I came to a stop I suddenly panicked, "Crap," I thought, "I have a book playing." I listen to some good music and it is a point of pride for me to not appear like the mid to late 40 something that I am when it comes to music. I grabbed my Ipod off the passenger seat and there was the sound, the bloopy de bloop sound that means my Ipod has just shuffled away from what I was listening too. The indie sound of Neko Case fills my car.
The young man had slept in and was on his way to a construction job a little way beyond where I was going, so he got in. We chatted about my job, his job, the lack of work for both of us in the community in which we live; the past, the future. I realized before long that this was the second time I had picked him up. This winter, on our way home from a family Christmas on December 27th, my daughters and I picked him up. We had driven by, but turned around and got him because his sign said, "Please".
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