Page 30 of Caleb's Cause
“Ah, an intimate family affair?”
“Yes,” Ryan said, and looked back at Pru. “We’ve got this. Caleb is already here, Larry, his Dad should be here by the end of next week, and your parents will arrive the Thursday before the wedding.”
“But, but, but…” Pru stuttered and looked confused. She finally shook her head, as if to clear it, sighed heavily, then looked around the table. When she spotted Katherine, she sighed again. “I have TBI and spaz out at times. I know Ryan and I are getting married, I know that things are planned, but when I have my spaz moments, I forget about all the planning we’ve already done.” She shook her head and looked at Ryan. Again, the love she showed him made Katherine’s heart hurt.
“What else do you need to do? Is there anything I can do to help?” She looked around the table, and it was Opal that answered with a laugh.
“How good are you at organizing?”
“I like to think I’m great at it, why?”
“It’s just that we have everything written down, and all in one place, but it’s all on several pieces of paper, so that when we look for something, we end up going down a rabbit hole as we go through them.”
“I’ll help,” Katherine said in excitement as she sat up and forward in her seat. “To protect you, I won’t tell you where I worked, but at my job I did all the organizing, assigning jobs, making sure they were completed, and put out small fires all day.” She looked around the table and laughed. “I was like Naomi, but in an office building.”
“I don’t want to put you out,” Ryan said.
“You won’t be, I volunteered. Please. What I’m about to say is not mean, I do not want anyone to think that I’m ungrateful for a job while I’m here, but I went through the motions this morning, but I couldn’t connect to the work.” She shrugged and looked around the table. “I know the work is important, but I’m just not an outdoor person, nor an animal person. I never had any dogs or cats growing up, hell, I never even had a goldfish. I can remember that from an early age I would always organize papers.” She laughed and shook her head at a distant memory.
“What?” Ryan asked in confusion.
“I think I was six or seven when I sat Mom down once and handed her a folder.”
“What was in it?” Pru asked.
“All the junk mail we had received over the past month. I opened it all, and organized it by categories. I felt so proud of myself, and Mom was good enough to sit there and listen to me, then she had to explain to me what junk mail was. I was so pissed that I did something I’m not very proud of. I did it for three solid months. When Mom found out she laughed. I mean she laughed so hard I thought she was going to either pass out from lack of oxygen, or pee her pants.”
“What on earth did you do?” Opal asked.
Katherine looked around the table with a grin. “Do you know those little postcards that come in magazines?”
“The ones that always fall out and we throw away? What about them?”
“Well, you don’t have to fill them out with any information when you mail them back. If they have postage paid on them, then that means the company has to pay that postage when they receive the card or whenever. I only heard that it was free for us, but they had to pay. For the next three months after learning what junk mail was, because I really thought I was helping Mom with organizing the bills, I stopped by a newsstand on my way home from school. If I remember correctly, it was the newsstand person that told me about the postage on those cards. The two of us would send them back.” She took a sip of her drink, and looked at the others with a grin. “I put them in the mailbox, he would just gather the cards during the day, and I’d stop by on my way home to pick them up. There was no blow-back, I didn’t do anything wrong, but he and I would keep a tally of them. If I remember correctly, in that three-month period I sent over a million postcards.”
“Oh, wow,” Pru said. “Why did you stop?”
“Because he passed away, and his family didn’t want to sit there all day, so they sold his cart to someone and I didn’t like the vibe that guy gave off, so I never stopped again. I know we just got off topic, but that was how passionate I was about organizing papers. Going through what you have for your wedding won’t be a hardship.”
“If you’re sure,” Ryan said with a slight hesitation.
“I’m sure.”
“Okay, then we’ll be over at the cabin at seven tonight.”
“Deal,” Katherine said with a laugh, and they shook hands on it, and Pru looked relieved.
When Katherine arrivedhome that night, she didn’t see Caleb anywhere, and after taking a quick shower, she was in the kitchen looking in the refrigerator and cupboards to see what she could cook. After spotting several items, she withdrew them and got to work. Caleb arrived ten minutes before she was due to put the meal on the table.
“Hey,” he said as he entered, and paused long enough to draw in a deep breath. “What’s that heavenly smell?” He rubbed his stomach when it began to growl.
Katherine laughed and shrugged as she set the table. “Spaghetti, with garlic bread. There’s not really much food here.”
“Yeah, I’ll explain about that when we eat. Do I have time to clean up?”
“If you hurry, you have about ten minutes.” She looked up and smiled when she saw his retreating back. She finished getting the meal on the table, and just as she set the last dish down, Caleb was there. He immediately went to the refrigeratorand got them both drinks. Neither of them said a word as they filled their plates and ate. Halfway through, she looked at him with a smile.
“Ryan and Pru will be here around seven.”
