Evan's Hobby

Hobbies…who needs them? What are they for? Do they really serve a purpose, or do they just take up time? Aren’t they something old people do, or maybe a mother with too much time on her hands? Either way, for my friend, Evan, he thought they were a waste of time.

               As we sat at the table in the hospital cafeteria, he was complaining about having nothing to do for the weekend. I rolled my eyes and studied his facial expressions as he talked about different things to try to do. His brown eyes held a look of deepest thought, his eyebrows were furrowed, and his lips were turned downwards into the worst frown. He was utterly perplexed. I could not take it anymore.

               “Evan, why don’t you find a hobby? We are too old to be going to these parties on the weekends. There’s got to be more to life,” I said.

               “Well, what do you do on your weekends at home?” he asked, surprised.

               I paused. I don’t normally lose my temper with him. After all, he is a great person. For as long as I have known him, he had always been kind, thoughtful, and a little lost. He and I never really fit in with the higher social circles at school.

               “Well, I don’t spend all of my time watching TV…I will read a book from time to time. Oh, and I do a little arts and crafts,” I answered.

               “Arts and crafts?”

               “Yes, I like to take things, broken things, and find a way to make them beautiful again. A broken pot for plants, can be turned into a little fairy garden with plants grown in them.”

               “Sounds dreadful.”

               “Only because you are a guy. Why not take some of those old guitar cases you have and turn them into bookshelves or something like that?”

               “I want to do something fun.”

               “Come to my house this weekend and we can go through some stuff. I can show you some tricks.”

               He looked a little hopeful, and then I saw the fear cross his features. Like what if he wasn’t good enough? What if no one liked what he could do? I have never told anyone this, but Evan used to make jewelry for me when we were kids. Like he carved charms out of wood and put them on a bracelet or a necklace.

               I always wear the bracelet with the owl, book, and music symbol on it. The owl was crafted like those little cute owls everyone sees on the internet. He had painted it a brilliant blue and gave it adorable green eyes. The book looked like it was an antique book. The music symbol was the treble note and it had little stars in it.

               “Okay, I will do it.”

               “That’s great, Evan!”

               “Annabelle, you best hope you’re right or else we are going out.”

               “I will be right, I promise.”

               When I got home, I went out into the yard, pulled all the broken pots I had and put them on my table. I also found some broken mason jars and some broken plates. I got my glitter, varying figurines, and glue and anything else I could think of. When I looked up at the clock it was almost six in the evening. Evan would be here soon.

               I ran upstairs of my home and straight into the shower. I washed the dirt and grime out of my blond hair, and I washed the grime off me from work. Being an orthopedic surgeon certainly took its toll. I never knew what I would come home with on my scrubs. Evan was normally in worse shape than me being a heart surgeon.

               I dried my hair and got dressed in an old t-shirt and some jeans with holes in it. You do not want to be dressed in good clothes and do crafts. It is just not feasible. I heard the doorbell ring, and I flew back down the stairs. I threw open the door to reveal Evan.

               Mind you, I have seen Evan in all his different fashion phases. He was dressed far too nicely for crafts in the yard. He had on nice button-down shirt and dress slacks. I don’t know what he thought we were doing. Maybe he was still hesitant about learning something new.

               “Evan, you are dressed a little too nicely for what we are doing tonight.”

               “I thought after we finished, we get a bite to eat.”

               “That’s not a bad idea. Come on in, we will go to the backyard.”

               I led Evan through my living room into my kitchen and out the backdoor. He was surprised to see all the supplies on the table.

               “Okay, so we are going to fix a little fairy village in this broken pot.”

               “Show me how it is done.”

               I took him through the steps. Hot gluing the pieces of the pot in different places to make ledges so the fairies would have a place to stand. I also got the glitter and a paint brush and painted the edges in a nice green. The glitter made it shine a whole lot. Finally, I left the bottom open to put a small daisy in it. The flower will grow up right beside the little fairies on the ledges.

               I gave another pot to Evan and told him to make something out of it. He worked with my supervision on a gnome garden. He did his ledges along the inside of the pot and put the gnomes along the ledge. He glued everything down so it would not move. He painted a small waterfall coming from one ledge down to where the plant would be.

               “It’s beautiful!”

               “Really, you like it?”

               “I love it!”

               “Good, because I only did this to spend time with you. It is fun doing something you enjoy like this.”

               “I’m glad you approve.”

               Sometimes all we need in life is a good friend to show us something new. Sometimes hobbies lead to lifetime of friendships or a lifetime of love. It is just always good to have someone to share your passions with. Even if they do only seem like silly little hobbies.