Time to Shift

Sorry, pictures would add so much to this story, but there were no cameras present, for which I am grateful!

If you've been reading along, I think you know that I'm presently staying with the manager of the office here, but spending my days at the office and the apartment of my friends. Each evening, when it's dark and the streets are not crowded, Steve or Alain accompanies me on my walk to my hosts' home. That walk will happen any time between 9:00 and 10:30 generally, depending both on what I'm doing and when it's convenient for one of the guys.

Wednesday evening was a little more difficult. Steve and Mary turned in early, and Alain was on the phone with a co-worker in Orlando, getting ready to put lots of changes into our systems over the coming weekend. I made good use of the time by instant messaging with a friend in NC that I hadn't talked with in months. Alain's conversation was interrupted by a call from his family in Switzerland. Though I was getting tired, I wasn't going to ask him to hang up on his mom! So I stretched out on the sofa. When Alain did hang up, he immediately called the co-worker back. Oh, I had forgotten that he had that to go back to! Perhaps I should have made myself more visible; from his room, there was nothing to remind him that I was there. In a short while, he stepped out to look, and found me on the sofa. We headed right out, but it was already after 11:00 PM.

Since I have a key to the house, I wasn't too worried. Anyone still awake might hear a little click and the soft padding of feet, but that shouldn't bother anyone too much. Wrong! The gate at the street was locked! It had never been locked before, and I certainly wasn't given a key to that. We didn't have many options, so Alain gave me a boost and I was up and over the chest-high gate in no time. Whew! He headed back home, as I climbed the stairs to their second-floor home. Surprise number two! My key would not work in their door. They must have thought I had already returned, since I had always been in by that time, and locked the door in such a way that it couldn't be opened from the outside even with a key. Too late to head back to the apartment--I'd never catch Alain. After struggling with the key (and sending up desperate prayers), I gave up and rang the doorbell. The husband opened the door for me, and responded kindly to my murmered apology.

According to my hostess's mother at breakfast the next morning, the above happened at 11:38 PM. More apologies, hopefully less murmered. This home was only to be a temporary lodging place for me, until the woman who lives in front of my friends' apartment returned from the US (which she did last week) and got a room in her house ready for me to rent. Perhaps it's getting to be that time.

Here in India, it's not called "moving," but rather "shifting." I'd better get ready to shift.