traffic was rough on the interstate. I think there was an accident beyond my exit, because traffic was at a standstill. Oh, that, and Matt and I talked again about his house in the forest idea,” said Christina.
“Oh geez, when is he going to get off that nonsense? Who in their right mind would want to live off the grid without electricity or grocery stores?”
“It’s really not that bad of an idea, Jess. It’s just, right now in both of our lives—him in his early thirties and me in my late twenties—it’s just not the right time for it right now is all.”
“Is it ever a right time to do something so crazy like that?”
“Yeah, I could see that being like a retirement adventure or something. But we both have another thirty-five years before either one of us can retire from anything that we’re doing.”
“Lot of debt from school? Credit cards?”
“No and yes. I mean we still have our student loans, a couple credit cards, our mortgage for our condo. I don’t know, Jess. He wants to just try it out…get a vacation log cabin and go once a weekend on occasion.”
“How many times would you use that in the year? Once, twice? Pay what, eighteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars a year for a weekend rental? Why not just rent a cabin in the woods if he really wants to do that?”
“Well, Matt says that he’d rather outright own a cabin rather than just rent it. I can understand his reasoning in that. I think both you and I can see where he’s coming from there.”
“Well, what did you tell him this morning?”
“Jess. It’s just not the right time for something like this right now. I know that breaks his heart and that he’s tired of living in the city. He was born in a farm, you know?”
“Get out. Like born in the farm?”
“No, not in the farm itself. But you know, raised in the farm. He’s just not into the bigger city and the buildings and the people. He’s just really a reserved guy—knows how to keep to himself. I think he’s just naturally used to the country and homesick for the farm.”
“Well, when you guys are ready for it someday, you’ll know. I guess it kinda sounds cool. I’d rather stay in the city though. Never know what’s out there in the woods. Plus, we have McDonald’s and Safeway here.”
“Yeah, never know what’s out there in the woods. Certainly no McDonald’s or Safeway stores.”
Jessica went back to her work on her computer at her desk, while Christina unpacked her things and started up her desktop computer. Stuffing her bag under her desk, a secretary from the front desk came in and set a yellow file down on her desk.
“This is from Mr. Klemme, said you were going to work this new file,” said Ms. Gladstone.
“Yes, I am. Thank you, Angela.”
The secretary, Ms. Gladstone, turned and walked back toward her desk at the front doors. Christina moved her purse from the top of her desk into a pullout drawer in her desk.
Christina then turned her attention to the new file and opened to begin organizing the paperwork. Christina powered on her desktop computer while she continued to organize the file the way she likes it to be organized. She spent the entire morning getting things organized, the file set up in the computer system, and before Christina knew it Jessica was leaning over toward her desk across the other side of the aisle.
“Lunchtime, Chris. Want to go grab a turkey sandwich at Moe’s?” said Jessica.
“Yeah, let’s go ahead and leave here for lunch in a minute. I just need to plug in a quick description of this payment.”
Jessica locked her computer and grabbed her purse that was under her desk, while Christina finished writing her note and saved it.
“Okay, done,” said Christina.
“All right, let’s go,” said Jessica.
Christina locked her computer and got up with Jessica. She pulled out her desk drawer and reached down. Picking up her purse from the drawer, the two walked toward the glass door leading to their office and left the building. Moe’s restaurant was close to the office—about a block and a half away from the office. It was a nice quiet and locally owned restaurant that celebrated the seafood lifestyle of the area and also near the waterfront of Olympia. It took the girls about ten minutes to walk to the sandwich shop where they made their orders and found a nice table outside to sit at in the shade of a large umbrella, shaded from the summer heat.
The girls talked about work and their home life, talked about their relationships with their significant others and their families. They spent some time discussing the idea of moving into the middle of nowhere in the forest again, to which the girls had a good laugh about, imagining Christina living in the middle of nowhere like that—how she would dress, what her days would look like, how she would cook meals, trapping animals, cleaning them, cooking them, growing vegetables from a garden. All of these ideas of being outdoorsy and living in the woods made Christina cringe at the very idea of having to do this kind of work that she was not so accustomed to. While they were both having lunch, an ambulance with its light and sirens blaring screamed by the two while they were at their table in the outside seating area.
After lunch the girls walked back to the office and made it back to their desks with a minute to spare on their hour-long lunch period. Christina went back to work on her file she left at her desk, while Jessica started up her workstation at her desk. The afternoon started off normal. Everyone in the small businesses department were working away at their desk. There were sounds of typing keyboards, pens and pencils writing on paper, and occasionally an accountant answering and talking on their phone. Jessica started working on a file she saved for the afternoon that she had planned on working on today a few days back. While Christina was working on her file, she felt a vibration up against her leg under the desk. She looked down and noticed that the vibrating was coming from her purse that was set next to her leg—her phone. Her phone was set on silent and in her purse, but when it was set on the silent feature would activate and vibrate, notifying her of an incoming message or phone call. Christina leaned down and grabbed her purse, fumbling through the compartments of the purse she finally found her phone. She grabbed it and looked at the screen. It was a phone number she didn’t recognize, and usually she wouldn’t answer it if she didn’t recognize the number, but something made her answer the phone this time at her desk.
“Hello?” said Christina.
“Hello, is this Christina Carter?” said a male voice on the other end of the phone.
Christina thought this must be someone trying to sell her an all-exclusive paid vacation to Hawaii for six days and seven nights, only if she invests just a little bit into overseas oil stock or only if she would supply her social security number or credit card number to the person on the other end of the line. Nevertheless though, she answered him back.
“Yes, this is Christina. Who is this?”
“Christina, my name is Trooper Tyler Wood from the Washington State Highway Patrol. Christina, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your husband, Matt Carter, is on his way to the Capital Medical Center at this time. Matt was involved in a car accident around 1:00 p.m. today, and he is being taken to Capital Medical Center in an ambulance that left here a short time ago.”
“What?” said Christina. “Is this a joke?”
“No, I’m afraid not, ma’am. Matt is on his way to Capital Medical Center over on Capital Mall Drive SW. Do you know where that is, Christina?”
Christina was shocked. She didn’t feel that this was a cruel joke being played on her by friends or anything. To joke about your husband being involved in an automobile accident and on his way to the hospital would be a terrible joke to play on anyone.
“If this is a joke, this is pretty messed up!” said Christina out loud. People in the department stopped typing on their keyboard and put pen and