Imagine

“I knew you couldn’t sleep so I came home to scratch your back.”

“Are you in the driveway?”  I was teasing.  I pictured him at Jerry and Lana’s in SunRiver.

“No, I’m not in the driveway, I can’t park the trailer in the driveway; I’m in the street.”

Then it began to dawn on me that he, DeRay, is actually home.  I had talked to him twice in the last hour or two and he hadn’t mentioned that he was driving.  On the first call, he reported that the day hadn’t gone as planned but he would tell me about it later.  He said he had a dizzy spell but felt better after eating.  Of course, that set me to worrying.  Then I called him back to tell him that the Davis County sheriff cars that Amy and I had seen Sunday evening on our way to Brooke’s concert at the Cathedral of the Madeleine were here because the neighbor across the street had a heart attack and died. 

Craig owned Cosmos Video Store on Main Street.

   He still didn’t tell me he was driving.  Then I get another call at 11:06 and I slowly realized that he is home; a full day early.

His mission was to clean out all the dead bushes, trees, debris from the winter kill at our SunRiver house.  He drove down Sunday and stayed in Jerry and Lana’s lovely new home where he was set up in a virtual suite.  He went over to the house around 8 on Monday morning; Jerry came 15 minutes later.  Jim and Maggie were just leaving to donate blood.  They left two bottles of cold water on the patio, leaving the back door open.  They left a note, reminding them to use the “guest” bathroom as they were guests.

As usual, Jerry does 80% of the work.  His saw was bigger than DeRay’s and he is fast and can get up and down.  He had those bushes whacked off and carried out to the street like a young energetic man; not a convalescent with glitches.  They worked for 3 or 4 hours.  Jerry had everything out on the street when they decided to go eat lunch.  Then the miracles began:

* It wasn’t a hot day like Sunday’s 95 degrees.  It was cloudy, cool, with a breeze.  Maybe 80’s.

* By happenchance, maintenance was doing front yards on the street.  They wanted to ask them if they would pick up their trash for a fee but decided against it.  They figured they had three trailer loads.  They dreaded loading it, tromping it, covering it and then making three trips to the dump, at least 40 miles round trip.  So they went back to Lana’s where she fixed them a delicious dinner.

* When they got back, every scrap of debris was gone; the street clean as a whistle.  “Did you turn down the wrong street?”  Imagine.

* As DeRay got feeling better, he decided to drive home since all the work was done.  He stopped for natural gas in Cedar City.  He made some comment about them expanding the station and when he went to pay for his drink, they said, “It’s on the house.”  Imagine.

* Stopping in Fillmore for gas, his credit card wouldn’t work.  He tried another one and it wouldn’t work either.  The guy getting gas next to him said, “Here, use mine.” DeRay gave him $7 but he didn’t expect it.  He just offered to let him use his credit card out of the goodness of his heart.  Imagine.

DeRay decided it is advantageous to look like an old tramp.

The day didn’t go at all as planned.  It went so much better.

And the best part is he is home, safe and sound, and I didn’t even have to worry.

Next morning, he went out to back the trailer in to unhitch it while Ed and I were riding trikes so we could go to the gym when we finished.  He missed his target the first try and pulled back out into the street when the neighbor lady came running towards him holding her hand over her bleeding head and calling “HELP!”

She wouldn’t get in the car so he and a worker nearby helped her onto our porch; put a towel on her head and called 911.  She told DeRay she stood up to answer the door for her grandson and fainted, evidently hitting her head on the corner of the wall. We cleaned the blood from her foyer, found her wallet, and left the back door open for the dog.

I was scared when I turned the corner on my trike and saw two ambulances leave our circle and greatly relieved when I saw DeRay backing the trailer in.  Wendy, Rajean’s daughter, asked me to look for her wallet. Shanel found it in her car.  Donna ran it to the hospital.  Wendy told me that her mother fell in front of our house.  DeRay had the story straight.  Ed thinks he was very brave. 

Is that why DeRay came home early from St. George?  Imagine.