Waiting for you to come home

 For God’s sake, how long am I going to have to be here? I’m tired, cold, and my butt is starting to hurt from how long I’ve been sitting. Damn it, why are they taking so long? I look around where I am sitting. The rain makes a nice pitter-patter on the windows and the street.I’ve always loved the rain, how it’s soothing yet violent and frightening all at once. I can hear the cars on the road nearby, which- in a way- is also peaceful. The rainwater is trickling along the road, creating small streams on the side of the road. It also washed off some of the paint on the crosswalk, turning some of the water yellow and some of it white. I usually don’t pay this much attention to nature- nor am I usually this poetic, but I have nothing else to do for the time being, so I figured looking at nature would help pass the time. I fiddle with the buttons on my sleeve, the yellow a nice contrast to the dreary clouds gushing outside. A few cars passed by, on their way to God-knows-where.

I look across the street and see a little girl, maybe three or four years old, splashing in a small puddle across the street. She wore a bright red raincoat and boots. Her bright, carefree smile warms my heart. I remember I used to love to do that as a child. The girl's mother eventually pulls her out of the puddle, seemingly scorning her about getting muddy. Yep, that sounds exactly like my mother. The girl takes notice of me watching her. I smile. She giggles and waves at me, saying goodbye. I wave back, smiling at the mother as well. The mother smiled. The girl skipped as she held her mother’s hand and skipped down the sidewalk.

I consider taking a walk at least, then I remember that I have to be here. My God, what is taking so long? Seriously, it doesn’t take that much time. I decided to call Janet. I don’t really like her, but she’s good for when you have time to kill. She picks up on the third ring. “Hello?” I can hear the TV in the background. “Why are you calling me?” I roll my eyes, “ Well it’s obviously because I wanted to talk to you.” She sighed, “ Yes, I can see that. My question is why?” I hear her children running around screaming in the background. Shortly after she tells them to stop running. “How was work?”

I don’t actually care how it was, but I know she’ll talk to me about it for a while. She talked about ho her boss may give her a promotion and how annoying her coworkers were. She told me what she had to do today, about her upcoming presentation with the rest of her department, about how her deadlines that she had to meet using a bunch of terms that I didn’t know the meaning of. I told her about my work today, how we all had the day off after the meeting with Cooperate. We talked about a few other things, and then she finally hung up, saying that she needed to start dinner. We said goodbye and hung up. Great. Now what?  I sat back, listening to the rain once again.

 After maybe ten more minutes, the rain stopped. Then it started again, this times with thunder. I decided to play games on my phone for a little while. I turned on my phone and looked at my locked screen. It was a picture of a wave curling over, caught at the perfect moment. I found almost all water calming, even though I know what its capabilities are. I decide to play solitaire, a chill game to go with the weather. I kept trying to beat my time of a minute and twenty-three seconds but never succeeded. I always had one or two cards left before I won. However, getting to those two cards would take an extra three or four minutes.

At this point, I had been waiting for almost an hour and a half. I was growing impatient. I took a sip of the double shot espresso that I’d grabbed on the way here. I didn’t care that it was the afternoon, I needed some caffeine. I sipped the rest of my coffee, which wasn’t as warm as when I got it due to how long I’ve been waiting. I listened to the police and ambulance sirens speed past on the parkway near where I was sitting. There must be an accident somewhere. I do hope those people are okay. 

 I decide to go inside and wait, figuring that if I had to wait any longer, I might as well not freeze to death. I tossed my now empty coffee cup into a small wastebasket by the door and set my stuff down. The inside looked nice. There were comfy couches and chairs and a nice fireplace with nothing above the mantle. The dark floor and the walls made the place look similar to the many coffee shops we have here in Seattle. It even had a couple of bookshelves against the wall. I took one of the books and curled up in one of the chairs. The rain was still going outside, though it seemed it was lighter than it was when I first arrived.

 A few minutes later I heard a car door slam shut. I did a quick scan around the room, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Then I heard the door being unlocked. A man came in and took off his hat and coat, he turns around, probably to get something from the kitchen, when he freezes. He slowly takes in his surroundings- the stuff I'd spread out on the floor, the gun I pulled out of my coat pocket. He hasn’t said a word. He didn’t move, just stood there in utter shock and most likely fear. I get it, though. I would be scared too if my psycho ex broke into my house and set this up. I gave him a small wave and smile, “Welcome home, honey.”