It was Friday
afternoon and fatigue was setting in, I had been quite unwell in the previous
few weeks, so my first full week back under the yoke had taken its toll.
I was working on a very
complicated spreadsheet, which was sending me cross eyed, so when I looked up
at the clock and saw it was a quarter to 5, I thought that will do for me, it
was a few minutes before my time but I thought it was close enough.
Afterall I wasn’t
anywhere near completing the spreadsheet so I figured I would attack it again
on Monday when I was fresh.
I shut down my laptop
and packed it into my backpack and gathered the rest of my belongings together.
There weren’t many
staff left in the office by that time, half of our compliment were in a finance
meeting and the remainder were dotted around sparsely.
Kenny, who sat
diagonally opposite me glanced at the clock and said
“Slipping away early?
“Yes, a bit” I
replied, though I was little puzzled by his comment as it was only a few
minutes earlier than normal, and then he added
“I suppose you must be
exhausted after working a full week”
We both laughed and
then I said my goodbyes and left, but as I pulled out of the car park I was
still a bit niggled by Kenny’s comment, but I put on a CD and my annoyance soon
evaporated away.
The drive across town
to where my wife worked was unremarkable, the traffic was no better or no worse
than it usually was, but when I reached the road behind her office building
there were an abundance of parking spaces which was not the norm, ordinarily getting
a parking space was something of a bun fight, but I wasn’t complaining as I drove
into the nearest space to the building.
I didn’t bother
turning the engine off as she was normally out promptly at five on a Friday,
but when it reached 5 past and she was a no show, and no one else had come out
either, I switched off the engine assuming that her boss had called a late
meeting, which was not beyond the realms of possibility as it had happened
before.
However within another
five minutes something happened that challenged my thought process, I received
a text, from Linda, my wife, but it wasn’t a “sorry running late” or “stuck in
a meeting” or “Be with you in 10 minutes”
It was “Hey hon did
you remember to get the mince out the freezer”
My first thought was
one of indignation, why did she always doubt me, of course I got the mince out
the freezer, that’s what I was asked to do.
The second thought to
cross my mind was one of confusion, why was she texting me questions she could
ask me in person if she got a her act together, came downstairs and got in the
car, but I played along with her and replied “of course I did”
“Well done, I thought
I’d do Cannelloni”
This time my first
thought was “that was patronizing” followed by “Again she’s texting me driving
home conversational questions”
And then I saw it, and
the penny dropped, the clock in the car, displaying the current time, 16.12.
“Oh shit” I exclaimed
in response, no wonder Kenny had made the comment about “slipping away early” I
had, I had slipped away an hour early, but I couldn’t work out how I managed
it, my desk phone, my laptop, my mobile, two wall clocks and a digital clock in
the car, yet I was still sure it was time to go home.
After a few minutes
pondering over my mistake, I came to a few conclusions, firstly accept that I
had cocked up, after all what was done was done, second, returning to work was
not an option, because I would be driving back to work in order to turn around
and head straight back again.
And thirdly never tell
Kenny the truth.
So, having established
my position going forward I texted Linda
“I’m outside BTW, I’ll
explain when I see you”
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