We all had problems sleeping last night. Peggy woke up around 3:30 and the two of us sat up talking until time for her to take her shower and make the final preparations. Just when she thought she had everything ready to go, she opened one more drawer and found another stack of clothes she had forgotten. But most of them fit in the suitcase. I still have a box to pack and send to her with the two boxes she packed herself. But we did get the suitcase closed and Walt was downstairs by then to help load the very heavy case into the car.
The sun was just coming up as we got to the airport. We had already decided I would just drop and her leave as quickly as possible. We were both having a very hard time holding back tears and the last thing we needed was to stand around prolonging the agony. So we unloaded the suitcase, I hugged her and started crying as I got into the car. I gave one final wave and then sped off.
When I got back to Davis, I stopped by the cemetery. I hadn’t been there since I showed the graves to Peggy shortly after she arrived. If a cemetery could look “beautiful,” it looked beautiful this morning. The sky was pink, there was low-lying fog wending its way among the headstones, and the birds were coming to life. I stood there talking with Paul and David while a white egret flew overhead and some chickadees hopped about in the tree near their grave. It helped to be there.
Walt is moving Kismet into the theater this week, so he spent most of the day at the theater. I tried to get some work done and to give some thought to the review I have to write of the show Walt and I saw on Friday night. I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do about it. I didn’t really like the script, though the production was good. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to handle it. The problem is that it’s kind of a surreal plot and I have little experience with such a thing, so I have to fake it and try not to look like an idiot. I’m told that this is how most critics start out--knowing nothing, but learning as they go. This play is definitely going to be a learning experience.
I spoke with my friend Lynn, in Texas. I hadn’t spoken with her in several weeks and it was good to hear her voice. One of the reasons it’s been so special having Peggy here is because since Lynn and her husband moved to Houston, I haven’t really had a good female friend here in Davis. I hadn’t realized I’d missed it so much until I suddenly had it again. So it was especially good to talk with Lynn this afternoon.
Peggy called from LA during her 4 hour layover before getting on the plane for Japan (her ultimate destination tonight is Singapore). When it came time for her to add more money to the pay phone, she counted it out like a pro. I was proud of her. It was hard telling her goodbye again. I won’t hear from her now until she gets back to Perth at the end of the week and gets her e-mail set up again. But at least we can go back to our daily chats and she can help me get my camera set up so we can do chats with photo accompaniment.
Before she left, we discovered that during her stay here, she’s gained weight and I’ve lost weight. This, we decided is because I’m walking more and she’s walking less. She will soon take off the weight as she gets back to eating her normal diet, running the dogs on the beach and walking around the halls of the hospital where she works as an Investigator. For my part, I promised her that I would keep up the walking habit that we started, so this afternoon I went out and walked for an hour. It was really lovely. I walked through the nearby park, over the freeway, and down by the marsh, which is home to a lot of birds. I sat on a bench where Peggy and I sat a couple of weeks ago and as I looked out over the marsh to the cumulus clouds, I saw a huge rainbow. It was so beautiful. It made me feel peaceful and happy.
When the rainbow disappeared, I walked back home again, feeling much better about things in general. They say a rainbow is a promise. I took the rainbow as a promise that the friendship Peggy and I have formed in the past six weeks will continue and that we will indeed find a way to see each other again.
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