A day at the office......
I was sitting at my desk when the phone rang. It was John, a classmate.
“Hey, how’s it goin?”
Hey John, what’s up?” I was trying to book a journal entry; John’s timing wasn’t great right now.
“Hey, I’m on my way to Palos.”
John had emailed me that he was going to go to Palos, from there to Evanston, and from there to downtown, for class. I’d told him to wave hi to my parents, since they lived in Palos. If he hadn’t said that he was on a tight schedule, I would have told him to stop by and see if Mom had any food for me. I looked at the little clock on top of my computer. It was 3:30.
“ON YOUR WAY? You’re not there yet?”
“No. but I’m close. I’m on One-twenty-seven street.” He said it just like that. One. Twenty. Seven. Not ‘a hundred and twenty-seventh’, but one-twenty-seven. Strange. “Hey, so I called you because I’ll be driving in tonight, and I wanted to know the parking places. I figured you’d know them all.”
“Well, there’s 111 East Chestnut, it’s two blocks down the street from school, it’s heated and it’s eight bucks with validation.”
“Two blocks from school?”
“Yeah right down the street.”
“I thought Chestnut was East-West, like Pearson?”
“It is. The garage entrance is on Pearson, but the main entrance to the condos is on Chestnut, so they call it 111 East Chestnut, even though it’s on Pearson. Don’t ask.”
“Okay. Because I’m gonna be cutting it close. I’ve got to go from here to Evanston.”
“Evanston? You’re still going there?”
“Yeah. What’s the best way to get downtown?”
“Well, your best bet is to go west on McCarthy, and north on LaGrange to the Stevenson.”
“I was thinking of heading back to the Ryan.”
“No. Too long. Too many lights. LaGrange is faster, trust me.”
“I don’t know. Is it fast? I don’t want to go 35.”
“No, no. It’s forest preserve there. It’s 55.”
“Oh wait. I just crossed 294. I could take that, couldn’t I?”
“Yeah, you could. But the exit to the Stevenson is west of LaGrange.”
“Yeah but I’d be doing 65 a lot sooner.”
“You’re still going to Evanston?”
”Yeah, I need to be there by 4:30.”
”No way. Not a chance. It takes an hour on a good day from my parents to Evanston, and you’re on your way to a meeting. Where are you now?”
”Central.” It was pushing 3:45. By the time he got to the bank met the trust administrator, then drove to Evanston, he’d be lucky if it were 6.
“No way John…..no way.”
”Yeah.” A long pause. “You might be right.”