Bill Worked For Hours.
On Friday, Bill took Dylan and his friend to see a band. They stayed out until midnight, which is way past my husband’s bedtime. But Bill never once complained – not even in the morning, when he got up and made pancakes for breakfast.
As the snow started falling on Saturday, Bill went out to buy dry ice for Dylan’s science project. Dylan had waited until the last minute to do his project – and everything needed to be completed by Monday, snow or no snow.
By the time Bill came home, there were four inches of snow on the ground.
Bill worked for hours with Dylan to make sure everything went well. Then the boys wanted to go sledding. The six inches of snow on the roads did not deter Bill. Even though the only sledding hill is five miles away, Bill packed up the car with sleds and snowboards and headed out.
Bill stayed out for almost two hours. He volunteered to pick up a pizza on the way home, but all the pizza places were closed. So Bill stopped at the grocery store – again – and got frozen pizzas, which made everyone happy.
Then he came home and shoveled some snow. Then we went over to my parents’ house and shoveled their driveway, too. Then we watched a movie together.
On Sunday, Bill got up early to check on church because he had committed to run the audio equipment for the service. The church held only one service, due to snow, so it was extra long. Bill was there until well past noon.
Then he headed out to the store to get a fuse for Dylan’s fog machine – another thing for Dylan’s science project. It took more than an hour for him to find the fuse, but he found it – and brought it home.
Bill took a minute to eat some leftover frozen pizza, but mid-way through his first piece, Dylan asked Bill if he’d fixed the machine yet. Bill put down his pizza and fixed the machine. Then he worked with Dylan for another hour on his science project.
Then the boys decided to go sledding again. Bill offered to chauffer any friends who wanted to come along. Dylan wanted to bring a friend, which didn’t work out, but he said he’d like to see his friend later – at around 6:00.
“Can she come over here?” we asked.
“I think so,” he said.
Then they all went sledding. They came home; they got dry and warm. Bill put away all the sledding gear. Then he made dinner.
While Bill was making dinner, Dylan said that his friend couldn’t come to our house because it was a school night and her parents wouldn’t allow it. I said I didn’t want him going over there, either. Bill said it would be nice if he could just spend a little time with us instead.
And that was simply not okay with Dylan. He whined. He complained. He tried several negotiating tactics. He slammed doors and stomped about. He came downstairs for dinner, never looked at anyone, wolfed down his food, put away his plate and went back upstairs without speaking to anyone.
Bill, feeling guilty that we’d said “no” to our darling little angel who never got any attention, went upstairs and set up Dylan on Skype on a monstrous-sized screen, so that he could talk to his friends in a spectacular way, even if he couldn’t see them in person.
I don’t know if Dylan said thank you.
But I sure hope he did.