Sylvia's Journal

Travelling to DC is not far but with all the waiting it takes a lot of time. We travelled in a little commuter plane and arrived at the end of the morning at the airport car rental place. A young woman rattled off the usual car rental agreement questions in such unintelligible English that I considered telling her I was not a native speaker to slow her down. Although we had requested the cheapest car she must have decided that we needed some pizzazz in our lives and gave us a bright red mustang. Axel got all excited but I got first dibs on driving it. It’s a very macho car with retro dashboard, low bucket seats and a deep dark sound coming from the motor and special exhaust pipes. The gear shift looks like a throttle.

We drove along empty highways to the house where Chris grew up, then returned to after his parents passed away and which, since he retired and moved to join his wife Carol in Seattle is now his daughter’s house. Carol received us with her two tiny pooches who wore knitted sweaters (the girl pink, the boy green) despite the balmy spring-like weather.

There was not enough time to dress up as presents, with ribbons and all, because Chris was on his way home. So we parked the red mustang a little ways off and hid in the kitchen. When Chris walked into the house we jumped out of the kitchen, and witnessed how real the surprise was. Chris, who is rarely speechless, embraced us with bear hugs that made up for the missing words. He then understood that we were the ‘internet present’ which he had been told to expect in the morning.

I had not seen Chris since he appeared in Manchester only weeks after our accident to attend to all our needs and relieve Sita and Tessa a bit. Axel had travelled to DC last April, his first big outing, by train, to help Chris pack to move West. Axel’s left arm was not entirely functional yet at the time and helping to pack was obviously not the main reason for his presence. We caught up with all the changes in our collective lives over pulled pork in a shopping-mall restaurant (which is where suburban Washingtonians go when they eat out).

After lunch we drove to Ruth Gowell who used to be married to Chris when we first knew them. Ruth is an accomplished fiber and glass artist, mostly practicing the two art forms separately but sometimes they come together. Ruth exhibits at Art and Craft Shows all over the East coast and sometimes barters her pieces with other artists. This makes for the most interesting pieces of pottery, glass and other art in her house, which makes you think you are in an art gallery. Son Ian is an artist as well, he blows glass, and makes extraordinary pieces, sometimes with his mom which is when the fiber and glass come together in wonderful ways. Daughter Linnea is an interior designer. She is the only person I know who organizes her books by the color of their jackets. Linnea’s favorite color is green which is rather obvious as soon as you enter her house. I realized that the red and blue Kashmiri rug that I gave her as a wedding present so totally not matches her house décor. Even husband Jason wore green clothes that fit the color of the walls. I think Tessa and Linnea would get along fine because they know about matching stuff.

We took an afternoon nap at Ruth’s because we had been up since 5 AM. And then we reconvened with another cast of characters for yet another shopping mall restaurant experience, Indian this time. We discussed the state of the world and all the things that are wrong with it and voiced our respective opinions on how to fix stuff, and then feasted on korma, paneer, nan, raita and other Indian delicacies.