Not my thesis, but it looks good.
Facebook shared this memory with me. I forgot how good it felt to see my words in print. I share it because sometimes these things do not go as we would wish.
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I waited a long time at Staples, in line behind someone who was coming up with what he wanted on a banner while I and increasingly more other people waited. “I do not wish to be an angry person, Lord. And yet here I am,” I prayed. “Help me to be patient, at least, even if I don’t feel that way.”
The lady at the counter continued to help the man ahead of me, but the man who had helped me two days ago came over from the self-serve copiers, where life was temporarily going as it should, and said, “May I help you?”
“Yes, thank you! I’m waiting for my two copies of my thesis?”
I spelled our name, and he tried three times and found it at last.
He ducked under the counter and stood up again.
“Here!” he said triumphantly, and handed me the folder with my original thesis. No box, no bag, no remaining paper. He beamed at me as if he wrote it himself. And at first I start to smile back. It is a lovely thesis. But there seemed to be too few pages.
“Wait. That’s my thesis.”
“Yes!” he said, happily.
I shuffled through the pages. Only one copy. *The* one copy that I dropped off.
I took a deep breath and didn’t let all of it out.
“I had asked that you make two copies on the paper that I bought? And I wanted the leftover paper?”
“Ah!” he said, and dug under the counter.
“Here!” he said, once again triumphant.
It was the work order and the leftover paper in a box with no lid.
I channeled the person I have to become to substitute for Kindergarten, where their intentions are always good, always, one tells oneself. Always.
“This is the extra paper, which is good, but I had wanted the thesis? Two copies? And could I have a box for this, please?”
“We took your lid for the paper box?”
“Yes, apparently, ” I said, with a regretful little nod, as if I were the one who lost it.
He looked around, and could not find the lid, so he took out another box for copies, giving me a look that bordered on reproachful
“Could we find the copies of the thesis?” At this point, it was a real question.
Once more he looked under the counter.
“Ah!” he said, and handed me two boxes.
With no small amount of trepidation, I opened them. Yes. Both had one copy each of “Words So Far from Roslindale.”
“Thank you!” I said, smiling at last.
“You’re welcome,” he said, and seemed genuinely pleased.
“And, could I have a bag?”
His face fell.
Apparently, I could not.
“We don’t have one the right size,” he said. “But wait! Would this do?”
“This” was a large box, somewhat crushed, one foot by two, maybe four inches tall, missing a flap.
It did do. Close enough. If I took the box and smiled, I could leave the store.
I took the box, thanked him, smiled, and left, oh, I got to leave, I left the store.
And now my thesis is handed in.
And glory be to God.
Writing prompt: The words don’t do anyone else any good while they are still in your head.
Write something.
Print it.
Share it.