WEEK 98
THE DEPARTURE WEEK
Wednesday January 5 - Thursday January 11
If you have not read PART 1 go ahead and click here : WEEK 98. THE DEPARTURE WEEK. PART 1
(Main events of my last days in Georgia)
-------------------------------------------------------
Unbelievably, five days before leaving to Spain, people started marching up my driveway and taking odds and ends off my hands. Funny, now that I was ready to take everything to Goodwill, things were going out the door and I didn´t have to move a finger! Hallelujah!
Now, I must tell you about one of those things I sold; a stepladder I had posted in a virtual yard sale. It was stained with paint, because of course I used it to reach the top borders of the walls I painted, but otherwise it was good and sturdy. Well, this small stepladder had become one of Alonso´s favorite things to play with during these past weeks. He would go up and down on it a million times, sat and read his books on it, and at times, it was a magnificent two story garage for his Hot wheels. As sad as this might sound it was his buddy. However, it all had to go and hanging on to an old stepladder was nonsense.
Really. Take a look at it.
Well, someone contacted me about it and would be coming by that afternoon to pick it up. I didn´t think much of it until I saw Sandra´s car pull up to the house... With Alonso there the sale would be interesting to say the least.
He looked suspiciously at the woman when she was taking a look at the stepladder but, all was good for the time being because she was in no hurry and left it where it was. Alonso continued playing with his cars and the woman and her husband started looking around the garage. Suddenly, her eyes fixed on a silver candelabra, I had placed on a desk I was also trying to sell, and you could tell it was love at first sight. She contemplated it with adoration, then grabbed it and held it out to her husband while she said excitedly, ¨Honey! Ain't this the most beautiful thing you ever saw?¨ He lifted his eyes from the tools he was checking out, scratched his head and said¨Uhu¨with a grin that allowed me to see several missing front teeth.
(Ah, my Georgia memories will endure...)
I don't think I will ever forget the moment the couple walked down the driveway to one of the oldest, mud-crusted, most beaten up pick up trucks I had seen during my years in Georgia. He went ahead of her. She had the candelabra in one hand and in the other the stepladder. And Alonso who watched in disbelief repeatedly started crying out little no, no, nos. She turned around and said ¨Aaaaawww¨ with a sad face, but I assured her to go on and not worry. Then I tried to console Alonso, but he would have none of that and ran off to the middle of our steep front lawn where he looked minute and more defenseless than ever. If I thought that was a pitiful picture right there, things took an even worse turn when Alonso saw the man take the stepladder from his wife and put it in the back of the pick up. When the truck drove off my grandson's little knees gave in. And so, knelt on the dry bermuda grass, he lifted his hands up to the sky and let out a wail and what seemed to me the longest sounding NOOOOOOOOOO I had heard in my life...
Lord, I felt down right miserable.
But we can't give in to all that children want. I took a deep breath and went to get him. As always I ended half carrying, half dragging a very upset Alonso up the lawn and into the house, while my front neighbors watched... as always. In a matter of very, very, very looooong minutes the stepladder became a matter of the past.
Like I said, the sale was interesting to say the least.
That night I imagined the woman from my latest sale walking into her home and trying to find a place for her new prized possession; the silver candelabra I ended selling for five dollars because I really wanted her to have it.
And you know, looking at the bright side of things, this sale also made me realize that in the future Alonso could do really good in a drama group...
----------------------------------------------------------------
