I came home tonight to a box on the front steps. Woo-hoo! (That’s always exciting, until I realize it’s boring technical stuff that Lloyd has ordered for school.)
This box, though, this box had handwriting. Sellers of technical stuff don’t have handwriting, so this was a positive sign. It took me a minute to realize it was Brad’s handwriting.
Stuff from Brad!! Hooray!! It’s gotta be good! I wonder what it could be??? It’s heavy. What could it possibly be??? It’s….it’s…….
Oh. It’s books.
Booooooooo. Books are boring. Worse yet, they were books for Lloyd. groan.
….and then, peeking from beneath the books – an umbrella!! And a note!!
The note says:
FOR LAUREN: This is the umbrella from Brookstone that I was talking about. It folds up small, but opens up HUGE. It’s my gift to you. All I ask in return is that it’s available to me next time you aren’t in Seward on the Fourth of July and it’s cold and raining and Denis is there and if there’s not some cool ‘hover umbrella’ from the future later.
(This Fourth of July when Brad and Denis were here it was cold and raining and the only umbrellas we had in the house were worthless.)
The rest of the note had some ‘blah blah blah’ to Lloyd about the books. Brad says that one of them is signed by its author (Robert Jordan) but you forget, Brad, that I know your handwriting.