UNEXPECTED VISIT

‘Are you going to come in?’, I smiled as I opened the door and listened to her talking about having missed the bus.

She took off her dance shoes and set down her heavy pink backpack. Then she explained how the teacher decided to keep the dancers at practise longer than planned which meant she was unable to make it to the bus her sister was on. The high school bus.

‘She was basically blaming me for not having a plan B’, she said of the other teacher who was part of today’s tech practise for this week’s three performances at the high school.

I was glad to have been at home at the time and that there was food to feed her. My son was finishing his online off-campus PE class and was hungry as well. So, I made prosciutto sandwiches with avocado for both of them. The only person missing was their older sister who was still on the bus on the way to the other home.

The new plan was for me to drive her back to her father’s house. Since she was still grounded, and her phone was confiscated until the end of the school year, she was unable to call her father to pick her up. In this case, having devices proves useful, as does living across the street from both schools.

We talked about the plan for later this week and when she would return. I let her know that I would make some of her favourite foods on Friday. She added that she would like for me to make pillow cake which we could eat with whipped cream and, perhaps, ice cream. Then I drove her to the parking lot by their main road where she met her sister who drove there with the buggy to pick her up.

Though we might not see it at the time, change leads to growth and to something better. Things don’t necessarily return to the way they were. That is simply a part of life which we need to learn to embrace. Today’s unexpected visit by my middle daughter was a welcomed surprise. And a small step towards a new future.