It was a cold, rainy Saturday and I had a lot of errands to run. As I was heading to the front door I called out to my son Alex “You almost ready?”
“Be there in a second!” He called back.
I checked my watch, feeling a little bit impatient as I thought of the most efficient way to get all the errands done.
Alex came out of his room. “How long do you think we’re going to be out?” He asked as he got his coat on.
“I’ve got about a half a dozen stops to make before we can stop and pick up lunch.” I checked my watch again. “I’m going to say a little over an hour?” I shrugged my shoulders letting him know it was definitely a rough guess.
Alex laughed. “Let’s see how close that estimate is.”
Driving to our first stop, not far from the house, I pulled into the back parking lot of a church. Putting the car in park I left the car running and putting the windshield wipers down to intermittent.
“Okay, this is our first stop.” Getting out of the car I went and opened the back door, grabbing a bag of clothes ready to be donated. “I also have a bag of books I’ve read.” I looked over at him and smiled. “Luckily the donation bin for that is right over there in the same parking lot!”
“Good.” Alex reached over and adjusted the heat. “Two errands done in one stop.”
“Exactly!”
I jogged over to the bin and tossed the bag of clothes in. Getting back to the car I reached in for the bag of books but the bag ripped and the books spilled onto the floor.
“Darn it!” I cried as I began picking up a few of the books. “Now I’m going to have to make a few trips.”
Alex opened his door. “Do you want some help?”
“No. I’m good. No use both of us getting wet.” I took the first armload of books to the bin and began dropping them in a few at a time. But then stopped when I saw the cover of one of the books and realized I didn’t want to donate it just yet.
Clutching it to my chest, so it didn’t get wet, I hurried back to the car and tossed the book on the back seat.
“What’s up with that?” Alex asked pointing to the book and laughing.
“I’m just not ready to get rid of that one yet.” I explained as I began picking up more of the books that were on the floor. But now that I was questioning not donating one book I was beginning to rethink some of the other ones.
“You know this one was pretty good, too.” I held up another book. “I met the author.”
Alex leaned his head back against the headrest and sighed. “Why don’t we skip this errand and move on to the next one?”
“I’ll just be another minute.” I said but now I was standing in the rain wondering if I wanted to get rid of any of them.
I looked back over my shoulder at the book bin.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Alex cried when he saw where I was looking.
“What?”
“We’re not breaking into a book bin to get your books back!”
“I wasn’t going to do that.” I said leaving the book still on the floor and closing the back door. Climbing back into the driver’s seat. “I wasn’t!” I cried again.
Alex laughed and shook his head. “We’re in the back of a church and you’re thinking of breaking into a donation box.”
“It was a fleeting thought. That’s all.” I said as I put the car in drive.
Alex laughed again. “You’re lucky I was here to stop you.”
“What can I say?” I said slowly driving past the book box. “I love my books.”
Slice of Life 