Mathey

She was so engrossed in her reading that the cell phone ringing didn’t register with her at first. She placed a pencil in the book to mark her place and started moving stacks of paper around, digging through the mess to locate her phone. Just as her fingers found it, the ringing stopped. She put the book on the table next to her laptop as she pulled her phone out from under the stack and looked at the display, recognizing the number of her best friend.

“Oh, crap!” she thought, as she flipped the phone open and quickly dialed her friend.

When her friend answered on the second ring, she said, “Oh, Glenda! I am so sorry! That gala at the museum wasn’t tonight, was it? Is it too late? I can get ready and be there in about 30 minutes.”

She glanced anxiously at her watch, trying to gauge how long it would take her to grab a quick shower, make up her face, throw on a nice cocktail dress, and get to the Museum of Art.

“Let me guess,” said her friend, Glenda, chuckling, “hubby’s at work and the kid’s out with friends. You’re at the kitchen table, surrounded by papers, your laptop open with about a dozen websites open, and you’re gnawing on a pencil, trying to figure out how to put all that research into a cohesive document. Sweetie, I’ll say this for your own good: relax, you’ll pass the course with flying colors. You always do.”

Suzanne Harris smiled, leaned back in the chair, and ran her fingers through her disheveled hair.

“You know me too well. Yes, I’m surrounded by all this homework but I’m not gnawing on a pencil. That’s being used to hold my place in the book.”

“Okay, okay. I stand corrected.”

Suzanne leaned forward and said seriously, “Please tell me that the exhibit wasn’t tonight? I didn’t miss it, did I?”

Glenda laughed.

“No, you didn’t miss it. That’s tomorrow night. I just wanted to call you tonight to remind you. When your head is buried in your books, you don’t always remember to come up for air, you know,”

Suzanne sighed, knowing her friend was right. She did have a tendency to be very focused on one thing at a time, and for now, it was this class on Greek mythology and how those beliefs impacted its history that demanded all her attention.

“Do you want me to swing by and pick you up?” she asked.

“No, I have to be there early, to make sure everything is set up correctly. I’ll leave your VIP pass with George at the front.”

“Okay,” said Suzanne, “that sounds good. Anything else I need to remember?”

“Well, there is one thing,” Glenda replied. “I was talking with Lisa Tsai, the woman in charge of this particular collection. She said she’s really looking forward to meeting some Americans and trying to bridge the cultural gap between us and China. We started talking about some of the items that have become popular and when I mentioned that jade was really big, she said she was very fond of jade as well. I remembered you have a ring that belonged to your what? Grandmother, right? That she got when she lived in China?”

“Wow! You have some memory. I must have showed you that ring ages ago. But, yes, I have a jade ring that’s set in rose gold. I remember my mother telling me that her mother got it as a gift in China.”

Glenda continued, “Well, anyway, I told Lisa about it and she asked if you would be willing to wear it to the exhibit. She thinks it might be interesting to look at it.”

Suzanne paused for a minute and then said, “I guess I could.”

“Good,” said Glenda. “I told her you probably would. I know I shouldn’t have put you on the spot, but that’s just who I am!”

Suzanne smiled. She remembered other times when Glenda had volunteered her for one thing or another. But then she had done the same, so the scales balanced out, as far as she was concerned.

“All right then,” Glenda said, “I’ll let you get back to your research. I don’t know how you do it. I wish I had your gumption, going after a degree like you are.”

Shaking her head, Suzanne told her friend, “This is something I want to do, and my family supports me. It may not get me anywhere, but the goal for me is to finish, you know? And you’re right. I need to at least finish this section of the paper before I go to bed tonight. I’ll see you at the museum tomorrow night. Doors open at seven, right?”

“Right,” answered Glenda. “I’ll see you there. ’night, doll!”

As she closed her phone, Suzanne looked at the mess on the table. It really is a mess, she thought, but it’s an organized mess.

She picked up the book and opened it to the page marked by her gnawed pencil. She looked over her notes on the laptop and dove back into her research on early Greek mythology.