Bill pulled up to the sidewalk at the front of the house. The spring temperatures and abundant sunlight had proven beneficial for the grass and the trees that canopied over the street and sidewalk. The daffodils and tulips stood proudly in the gardens and window boxes as the later blooming flowers were barely breaking through the dirt and mulch after a much needed winter slumber.
“You need any help?” Bill asked as Nathan undid his seatbelt.
“No thanks, I mean you’re welcome to come in but I’m just going to be finishing up the spring cleaning.” He replied as he stepped out.
“Oh, ok.” Bill said leaning out of his window. “I’ll swing by tomorrow. If that’s alright.”
Nathan was half way up the steps to his house when he waved and called back, “Ya, that’s good. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Bill reluctantly put his truck back in drive and took his foot off the break. Something was up but he had no idea what it was. He really wanted to know what Nate was up to now but didn’t want to overstay his welcome and become a nuisance. So he accelerated slowly and vanished down the street.
Nathan walked in the house and kicked his shoes off at the door, then, he headed into the kitchen and started some tea. He sat at the kitchen table and called Kathleen’s parents on his cell phone to see how his kids were doing.
Alex said that he enjoyed math and science but not history so much. Rebecca was having fun with her grandma baking cookies and cakes. Tom was getting excited that next year, he too would ride the bus with his brother and sister to school. They all missed their mom and dad, but Kathleen’s parents were doing a fine job keeping them while he recovered.
When they said their good byes, Helen got back on the phone, “How are you holding up Nathan?”
“I’m alright. I just wanted to thank you and Richard for everything.”
“Nathan, you are most welcome. It has been our pleasure watching over the babies.”
Helen had a tendency of referring to his children as babies, perhaps to slow the aging process, if only in her mind. He knew that there was no better place right now than in the care of their loving grandparents.
“Is there anything you need?”
“No, I just wanted to hear their voices. Give my best to Richard.”
“I will. And you take care.”
He hung up the phone and set it on the table then got up and fixed a cup of the fresh brewed tea. He liked it with cream and sugar until it was the color of brown sugar, and nearly as sweet too. He sipped the piping hot beverage and went to his office.
When he got to his desk he reflected on the books that had been discarded and the ones that still needed to be gone through. He took books off the shelves and continued where he had left off. The count of books to be thrown away largely outnumbered the keepers. It took only about an hour to clear through every last book in his study, and when he finished he had only about twenty-five or so that he felt he would hang on to.
He filed the books back on to the shelves and boxed up the trash and placed it in the garage until Monday, when they picked up the trash. After he put the last box in the garage, he turned off the light and locked the door behind him leaving any implication of surrender or failure that may have infected him once before, behind the dead bolt and lead pane window.
When he felt that he had completed his task of cleaning out some of the disease that had infected his life, he retired to the living room and turned on the television. Some reality talent show was on which didn’t really interest him so he began to surf a bit. Everything from food shows to home remodeling shows to gardening shows. “How can anyone get anything done if their watching someone else do it?” He thought.
Sitcoms that had no purpose other than to help one waste the evening, cluttered the stations with news shows peppered throughout filled most of the other channels. Then he found an old John Wayne movie from the early thirties with Maureen O'Hara, The Quiet Man. He enjoyed watching the Duke no matter what character he played. Nathan sipped his tea and stretched out on the couch. The movie played on but the day had already taken too much from him and easily he fell asleep.