You are....WHO???

I'm pretty much camping out. I'm down from Canada and coordinating the reno's on my Mom's house preparatory to its sale. All the amenities, save the flush, were ripped out some time ago. (see other entries) So before I had figured out how to keep clean with no shower, this one day there is the doorbell. Thinking it's likely a friend of my Mom who doesn't know she's moved to Mountain View, I prepare my little schpiele. I open the door, and there stand four rather nice looking women about my age and younger. Probably not my Mom's friends, so I politely say "Yes?"

The woman in front of me looks a little taken aback and says "Don't you recognize us?" I look around at the faces, and sure enough, there is some vague but strong feeling of familiarity. But: "Uh...no...?" Then she says: "I'm Terri, that's Rina, That's her friend Gail, and that's Mary. Does that help?" Blank stare from me, dazed from being crazily out of context.... "OK," she says, "I'm Terri, who used to be married to you. Does that help?" I knew that by then, but I guess you get the picture of how stunned I was by this apparition before me. They might as well have been the Four Horsemen, but much nicer.

Holy Jehoshaphat! It hit me like a sack of wet potatoes from atop the barn--back to here and now. "Wow!..... OK, come in," say I. So here we are, this woman I was married to some 30 years ago, and whom I haven't seen or heard from in some two decades; she's here from out of state, bringing a long time ago neighbor and a friend to "just drop by." Her hair is a different color and style, she's a bit thinner, and her voice is somewhat changed since twenty-odd years ago. She was near here visiting her sister and was touring her (our) old neighborhood with some friends she re-connected with.

I had nothing to offer them, had paint cans for them to sit on and tarps for drapes, looked pretty scruffy in used work clothes and unshaven, and likely smelled bad. The place was a wreck; drywall dust was everywhere and I'd come of several bouts of avoiding the murder of at least two incompetent "tradesmen" by somewhat less than a hair's breadth. Quite the reunion, eh?. Well, we got along OK, and they all left after about twenty minutes. She hung back for a minute or two to impart some bits of news, and then left me standing there, still wondering what the heck just happened. Well, at least Rina said she wants to buy one of my sculptures, and Mary wants a copy of one of my poems. It wasn't all bad. Just one heck of a shock out of the blue.

So there it was, my twenty year re-union with my ex and half again as long for most of her entourage. They lived through it, I hear, despite me likely looking like a male Medusa. I reflected that there are such surprises in life, and such will likely come at the most awkward times. What can one do? Smile and enjoy!