13 June 2012

conversation

At 4:07 I’m on a Lilydale train somewhere near Hawthorn Station reading a book. I don’t hear my phone ring. It’s my son Mo. He leaves no message, never does.

I walk in the door just before five and unpack my bag. I check the phone, see that Mo called. I ring back. “G’day. How’s it going?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah what? You called me.”

“I was coming past, thought I might drop in.”

“Well, I wasn’t home, I was on the train. I guess you’re now somewhere else and not coming past here.”

“Yeah.”

“How’s work? Are you working hard?”

“Half the time.”

“What’s half the time?”

“It’s a bit quiet.”

“Lynne rang the other day, said she’d seen you and you had a ring.”

“Yeah.”

“This’d be a ring for Katie. Do you have any plan about giving it to her, saying anything significant, deep and meaningful?”

“Not really.”

“Does she know you have a ring to give her?”

“No. It’s sort of hard to catch each other, even on Sundays.”

“Are you still intending to call her father and ask about marrying his daughter.”

“Not her father so much as the family. And I’ll just tell them that’s what we’re planning to do.”

“Good. Coz you know I don’t approve of asking fathers if you can marry their daughters. It’s tantamount to treating women like possessions to be given away.”

“I know how you feel about marriage. I just think it’d be nice to tell them. Her mother said she wants to know before anyone else.”

“So marriage has been mentioned with the family?”

“Not really, but we’ve been together nearly four years so I guess they sort of think it might happen.”

“OK. That’s good. Has it been four years? That long? Listen, when you do you ask Katie, I want her to ring me and tell me she’s going to marry you. If you’re extending that courtesy to her parents, then I think she should call me. And I want to tell her that she’s more than welcome to marry you. And that I’m delighted it’s her.”

“Yeah, OK.”

“What’s that noise?”

“Just came out of the shops and turned on the bluetooth.”

“Sounds pretty weird. Look, there’s about twenty minutes of daylight left and Jezza hasn’t had a walk. So I might go and take him for a quick one.”

“No worries. Talk soon.”

“Yep. See ya.”

Rock on. 

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