F is for Finn (Men of ALPHAbet Mountain)

We made our way back out onto the trail and headed deeper into the woods. As we wound our way up the mountain, we both shared a bit more about ourselves and our lives. I told him about how I had moved from my hometown over to Ashford specifically to work in the diner, how Helen had seemingly saved me from an existence of being bored.

He quipped that the French part of the French Canadian meant that he was especially empathetic to my love of food. Though, his idea of fine food was more in line with my own and not fancy restaurants where the dishes were primarily empty spaces on the plates. It was one of my pet peeves, and it was fun to hear someone else say it. It was one of the reasons why I sometimes hate-watched cooking competition shows. An entrée shouldn’t have eighty percent of the plate empty.

When we reached one of the big scenic spots, we took another rest, and he decided he was going to go ahead and head back. We shared phone numbers and made tentative plans to meet up sometime for a beer or something, and I went about setting up my hammock.

I rested in the sunshine, looking out over the mountains for a few hours, napping for a bit during that time. Eventually, an alarm I set on my watch went off, telling me I had only a couple of hours of light left, so I packed up and headed back to my car. When I reached it, the sun was just going down, and I felt relaxed and happy, having spent so much time in nature. Maybe Helen was right. Maybe we all did need a day off. Even me.

6

WENDY

Monday morning came way too early as all my mornings tended to do. Like just about every other adult in the nation, I never seemed to be able to carve out the time to get enough sleep on a regular basis. I tried. I understood how important it was to get the right amount of rest every day, and I knew I was at my best when I spent that time in bed with my brain left to its own devices rather than focusing on countless things like it did during the day.

But it was those countless things that often stopped me from having enough hours ahead of me by the time I managed to slip under the covers and turn the lights off at night. I tried to arrange my schedule to front-load it with things I needed to get done so I had my evenings free. I tried every efficiency hack from meal planning to having specific tasks on specific days. No matter what, there was always more to do than there was time to stuff it all in. And the truth was, if I had to choose between setting aside everything to cuddle with my son and read to him for a couple of hours and getting those extra hours to sleep, I was going to choose Olly every time.

That choice did, however, result in some groggy mornings and reluctance to drag myself out of bed. It was particularly difficult during the winter months when the space beyond my cozy covers was so much colder than the nest within, so I was at least thankful for the lingering mildness of the fall weather. I got out of bed and headed for Olly’s room, ready to start my battle of the morning.

It was a shock when his little eyes popped open in response to his name and a grin came to his lips. He reached up to me for a hug, and I kissed all over his little face. He was in a great mood and didn’t make even a single complaint about being woken up. I scooped him up, and we spent a happy morning together getting ready. I was under no delusion that the next day he wasn’t probably going to go right back to resisting getting out of bed and trying to steal every single second of sleep that he could. And I wouldn’t be angry or blame him for it. But it was very nice having a morning of him just being easy and smooth.

We got to Deana’s house a few minutes earlier than we usually did, and I had the chance to really linger over the coffee she had waiting for me. I even got to toast up a bagel and smear it with some of the incredible vegetable cream cheese she got from the local shop where they blended up the special flavored smears every day. It was a fantastic morning.

That was probably why my stomach sunk as fast as it did when Everett pulled me aside shortly after I got to work. I was used to him coming into the office and everybody mingling around together for a few minutes before splitting off and going our separate ways to handle our individual jobs for the company. But there was something determined in his eyes when he asked me to hang back when everyone else had started out.