A Silly Day

On Mondays, I spend my lunchtime volunteering at a local public school. It's a lot of fun - and my student, G, is absolutely adorable. (Last week, G asked me to wear sneakers next time so she could race me down three flights of stairs after the program. Bear in mind, she's only ever seen me in formal business attire: skirt suits with high heels. This just made me laugh.)

A schoolbus comes to pick up volunteers at 11:25 a.m. So I try to keep my eye on the clock and leave no later than 11:20 to make sure I'm on time.

Today, my clock-watching started at 10:45 a.m. An hour later it was 11 o'clock.* I started to wonder if I should just give up and go outside already, but I thought No, I can't justify skiving off.

So of course, the next time I look up, it's 11:35. I've missed the bus. Grrrr. I thought about calling the bus driver - she might be willing to wait for me somewhere en route, and she probably hasn't gone that far. But I thought, No, that would be unfair to everyone else. I thought about calling the program coordinators to say I wouldn't come in - but then I said to myself, No, that's irresponsible.

The upshot of all this thrilling internal dialogue and debate? I did the grown up, responsible thing and hailed a cab to go to the school. The cab driver was really chatty. I wasn't in the mood to chat, but we exchanged a few remarks along these lines:

Cabbie: The streets are really deserted today. Is it a Jewish holiday or something?
Me: Yes, it's the second day of Passover.
Cabbie: Oh, that explains it. Are you a teacher?
Me: No, I'm not.
Cabbie: When I was a lad in the forest of Epping....**

We get to the school, I pay the cabbie, and it suddenly sinks in... I didn't miss the bus at all. The front door of the school is open, and I walk in to check in with the officer - sure enough, school's closed for Passover. I knew that.***

Footnotes:

* Scientists have not yet found a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon, but my own personal theory is that the clock I was watching may have been running on "football time" rather than ordinary time.

** In fairness, that's not a quote from the cabbie (I wasn't paying enough attention to report his conversation in fair and accurate detail). It's a line from Black Hearts in Battersea, by Joan Aiken - our protagonist Simon is trying to find his friend in an unfamiliar city, and keeps asking the way from people who are discursive and distractable to the point of incoherence. One dodderer who keeps blathering on about his alleged childhood in the alleged forest of Epping turns out to be in cahoots with the bad guys who are trying to keep Simon from finding his friend.

*** Ironically, last Monday, I and the other volunteers all knew and remembered that the schools would be closed this Monday for Passover. The kids did not know this - they were certain that they had school this week.