It has been awhile since I’ve seen Izzy. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of me walking into the house all by myself. She greeted me with her usual happiness but then walked down the hallway to see if Paul and Eve were there and wasn’t sure what to think when she didn’t find them.
I took her for a walk right away. She did beautifully. No pulling, no going crazy, just absolutely perfect loose leash walking. I rewarded her by taking her around an extra block.
Back at home she was still uneasy that she couldn’t find her people. She kept going to the doorway of the bedroom and barking. I could distract her with a toy for a few minutes at a time, but she would always return to the bedroom to look for them. She settled down after a little while. I sat on the floor so she could lay against me and chew on a toy. I took full advantage of her state of quiet by watching the first couple innings of the Cubs game. They trailed by six at the end of the first. The Cardinals have some kind of crazy juju over them this season.
Blaine called after he dropped Allison off at home. He let me know that Paul was back and I could leave. I took Izzy outside one more time, gave her a treat and a kiss on the head and went on my way.
Blaine and I hadn’t made plans for any part of the weekend in case either of us could be of help to Eve and Paul but we had agreed to get together at his place and do nothing together.
We went for a long walk through his neighborhood. The temperature was in the seventies and there was an intermittent breeze--perfection in my heat-hating world. As we walked, we swapped information about our days and the things on our minds. I suddenly felt something overwhelming. It was fleeting and I couldn’t pin it down. I hesitated for half a step and threw off our pace. Blaine paused until I fell in step again.
“Was there something there?” he asked, looking back for something on the ground. I told him no. He repositioned our hands so instead of loosely interlaced fingers, they were palm to palm, a more secure hold.
After passing a couple of driveways, Blaine observed, “You’ve gone quiet.”
I responded with silence because I didn’t know what to say. “Well,” I offered finally, “you should enjoy the quiet moments when you get them. I can yammer on pretty easily, as you know by now.”
“‘Yammer on.’ I like that. It doesn’t describe you though.” He’ll learn it does.
His neighborhood is a giant maze. There aren’t blocks you can walk around, just long meandering streets that horseshoe and lead to cul-de-sacs or roundabouts. I get lost if I drive into it from any direction but the one that leads directly to his house. I expected we would turn around at some point and backtrack. Instead, Blaine turned us down a golf cart path. We walked along the side yards of houses large enough to require two, sometimes three, air conditioner units. We finished the walk by crossing the golf course. I asked how many homeowner association rules we were breaking. I had gotten to read the bylaws, covenants and other rules a while back when Blaine was going through the approval process for adding a roof to his deck. I couldn’t live in a neighborhood where neighbors could boss me around. As I told Blaine, I’m a rule follower but I don’t like to be told what to do.
“The HOA doesn’t set rules for the golf course so we’re safe from the,” he said. “We are violating one or two rules of the golf club. If anyone asks, we’re looking for a lost ball.”
We weren’t on the course long. We crossed one green and were in Blaine’s back yard. The roof over the deck is finished, and it’s lovely. What was a wide open, often hot space now a more private, much cozier spot. We poured drinks and sat at the patio table, the arms of our chairs pushed together. Sometimes we leaned so our shoulders touched and sometimes turned so our legs did.
My phone vibrated on the table and Blaine’s text alert sounded. It was Eve letting us know the doctor had just left and what he had said. We replied separately and set the phones down again. We looked at each other in the way you do when you’re hoping the other person has an answer.
We remained outside until the fireflies had gone for the night.
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