It was like he caught himself at the last moment, saving himself from falling hard to the black ice just an inch below the powder of the evening snow. The catch wrenching his back and limiting his activities until at least early Spring. He might still have had twinges of of it now and then. The fall would have been kinder. He would have known even as he saved himself from the fall that it wasn't the wiser choice.

But it wasn't that catch. It wasn't that evening snow that witnessed his failed intuition. His last minute save turned failure.

It was when she asked him something about the meaning of the evening. Maybe that evening of the snow or maybe some other. He had been caught unawares, mumbling for a moment to cover his deliberation before saying what a wonderful time they had.

I walked to the back of the property by the woods and the water and sat down on an old chair left by some previous tenant. A certain disquiet had settled in through the course of the morning. The disquiet that often portends the resolution of a problem real or imagined. An errant word or something simpler. Or larger. A few bubbles appeared on the water close by the edge of the stagnant pond. And then a few random anwers floated to the surface. 

Retirement
As I was approaching retirement, I began a thorough investigation of a purchase of serious lounging slippers. I began by checking the usual small and large retailers. both specialty and department stores and then expanded my search to catalogues, magazines and the internet. I wasn't simply looking for something warm and comfortable but something that would not only discourage bump starting my day, being as I was retiring, but ones that would require quite a significant whack about the side of the head to do anything at all.

Betty's Sleeplessness
Betty woke up during the night and struggled to get back to sleep. When she did finally get back to sleep she overslept and missed her train. Employers could not abide her tardiness and she could not keep a steady job. After a period of time, Betty developed a plan: when she woke, she would have breakfast, make a lunch, prepare for work and catch the next train. Different trains however had different destinations. She found some employers who had different locations where she could work based on the time she woke up. She would work eight hours and catch the next train. Different return trains, however, had different destinations. The last time her husband heard from her she was somewhere in Iowa and her sons were in Florida and Hungary looking to take her to lunch.

One day on the way home from the grocer he looked ahead and on the sidewalk in front of him lay a shiny Canadian quarter. He bent to pick it up and discovered it was varnished or glued to the concrete. He smiled as he looked around knowing he was most probably the subject of someone's joke. Since that day he had forgetfully stopped twice more-okay, I stopped three more times- before remembering the security of the quarter and only smiling as he walked that stretch of walk. Now he looks down and thinks, maybe that's not a quarter. It's her heart. Or maybe it's his.

Offer

She smiled as I entered the apartment extending to me not only the usual courtesies expected upon an old friend's unplanned visit but a warmth that I didn't recognize.
“Can I get you anything? A sandwich? A coffee? A glass of water.”
I took a seat by the window looked briefly out to the street and then turned to her.
“Only if you bring it to me quietly in the middle of the night to the side of the bed.”