Low stakes diversion

January 29, 2004

Before I forget —as I edit Syracuse and compose an application letter to the American Enterprise Institute in response to its ad for freelance copyeditors— and given that the business is proving short lived indeed ... What I think undid me definitively was a melodramatic exit in the middle of the night.

It was a Saturday. I had opted to stay home the entire weekend to catch up on work. The weather was wintry. He had work one day and inventory the next. We had a dinner invitation on the middle night. I declined, he accepted. I suggested that he spend the night here so that he could enjoy the evening out, eliminate two hours driving time, and get to work at the required crack of dawn. I would be working, it wouldn't affect me one way or the other. He agreed. He appeared, then, about 11 o'clock in the evening. We had a brief conversation. I went back to work. He went up to bed. Round about 3 am, after I'd fallen asleep on my work, he appeared fully dressed saying that he had to go home because he couldn't get to sleep upstairs and needed sleep. Rapid calculations on my part yielded: 2 hours driving time makes 5 am, 1 hour showering makes 6 am, 1 hour sleep makes 7 am and presto the rest of the night is shot all for 1 possible hour of sleep versus 3. The boy's in a sulk, said I, and went back to sleep. So it proved. End of story.