I haven’t much time, but I did want to give you a quick update on my cases. It is a great pleasure to look down at one’s work and see it progressing well.
Lamarr and Tammy are any cupid’s dream—their happiness is apparent to anyone who sees them. They go to dinner at Shawna’s house once a week, and though Tammy’s mother is still a bit distant, she, too, has received a few visits from the pair and is beginning to soften. The only concerns I notice in them are various forms of trepidation at how fast the connection has been made. I am encouraging them not to worry about such things—they have time, I tell them; there is no hurry.
It is strange to me, that the humans will often think about “the future” as a place they must get to or where they can arrive. It frightens them, as if it is something that can come careening at them and strike them down. They do not see that the future is something they will never reach—it exists only in their thoughts. All they have is now, and now, and now, a slow, majestic movement through time, and their choices are not changing a destination, but adjusting the trajectory of their flight.
But I digress. The point is, I have few fears for Tammy and Lamarr. Soon they will not need me, though I know I will always watch over them. They were my first case, after all.
Ramona and Jesse also are doing well. They have moved beyond being mere acquaintances, I think. Though they cannot call one another,[1] they will often text or e-mail,[2] and twice they have met with other friends for a meal, though they spend much of the time looking at one another. There is a forced veneer of casualness in their interactions—they pretend that they are not thinking of one another, that they do not wish for more from the other. Of course, these feelings are inhibited in each of them—Jesse feels a certain level of guilt in thinking about a woman other than his late wife, and Ramona is certain that her feelings are not reciprocated. This is much of what has kept me busy, you see. It is not always that my work is the matter of one large intervention. Self-doubt and anxiety chip away at human connections, and I must do what I can to soothe these feelings and keep the ties strong.
I have hope, though, that we can make better progress in the coming days. The flock of geese that Jesse mentioned to Ramona in her first meeting have arrived, and Jesse contacted Ramona almost right away, inviting her to come and see them. She is very nervous—I will have my hands full to keep her from cancelling in sheer panic—but also excited. I am hopeful that there will be more movement between the two of them.
As for Don and Charlotte, they have made a beginning. He woke very heavy-headed and forgetful from his night of drinking, and was horrified to remember (after a while) his encounter with Charlotte. When he called her, however, she was very gracious, and accepted his offer to take her out to coffee as an apology. “You probably need it more than I do,” she told him, “but I’d be happy to join you.”
Over coffee, they got acquainted, and he did indeed make a much better impression, despite struggling to articulate his dislike of the man he has been. Charlotte understood—she is a self-made woman, and she appreciates the process of making a self. She was impressed enough that when he had finished his third cup of coffee, she took him by the tie and led him off to another cab, in which she ordered the driver to go to her hotel.
I would not have encouraged such a sudden launch into intimacy, but it seems to work for them. Don is looking much happier these days as he looks into work as a public defender. With that and with Charlotte, he has his hands full, but then, he always did like to be busy.
All seems to be well, then, and likely to continue that way.
[1] By this, I mean by way of a telephone, a device which is used primarily to carry voices across distances.
[2] Different methods of sending written messages.