Monday, March 10, 2008

Homecomings and the hopeless romantic.

I swear every trip I get my hopes up that he will return early. Despite my being ok with the separation, I can’t help but miss the old lug. If we are fortunate enough to talk on the phone, I find myself listening to the background noise. I ask questions. I fish for information. I’m perpetually optimistic that he will surprise me and come home unexpectedly before his original return date. Still, it never happens. And, each time I voice this to him he says to me, “that’s why I keep the expectations low and don’t surprise you (anymore)”. He’s chided me for reading into things and says it’s my own fault for getting disappointed because he would be honest with me. Yes, I know he’s right.

Well, alright, so I’m the foolish one, but that’s only because years back he did come home early and surprise me. I was 8 months or so pregnant. It was getting late and he had called me to talk. Something seemed funny about the way he was talking, but I thought he was just excited to be speaking to me and that he would be home in a week or so. As we are talking there is a rapping on my door. I was startled and asked him to hang on so I could peer through the peep hole. He was just as astonished as I that someone would be knocking at our door so late at night. He even told me to be careful and not answer the door if I didn’t recognize the person. We didn’t really have friends in the area and our families were nowhere near by. On top of that I wasn’t expecting anyone.

I looked through that peep hole, and I felt my heart about jump out of my chest. We were still on the phone mind you. I vaguely remembering shouting some colorful words at him and telling him how he shouldn’t surprise a pregnant woman like that. Still, I couldn’t get that door open fast enough. Long story short, he did surprise me, and it was wonderful. I remember this fondly. I will say that his original plan was to sneak in the middle of the night and surprise me but my mother had warned him against it and said I’d probably think he was a robber and clobber him with a baseball bat or something. She was probably right.

So, here I sit, hoping and praying that one day he will surprise me like that again. I’m sure to have my hopes dashed, and I imagine there will be disappointment. Nonetheless, as I’ve said before I’m a romantic, and I just can’t help it.

3 comments:

Lainy said...

Oh I do the same things! Just hoping beyond hope that they would get all the aids worked early or that the ice would break by itself or that another station would come in and tow the boat back! We're such sillies. But, when miracles do happen and we get the very best gift- an early homecoming- it IS just the best thing ever.

Anonymous said...

My hubby is in the middle of the longest deployment he's had since we finally got to live together again. Every time I hear a helo fly over the house, I think, Oooo, maybe they let him come home early! Why they would do that is beyond me since they're short right now, but a girl can dream, right?
If we know they don't routinely come home, why do we do this to ourselves? At least I'm not alone!
Becca

KA said...

oh wow, that's a wonderful story! You're alucky woman.