Someone in a breakout room after Zoom church said something to me about someone’s video and I explained about not hearing well without closed captions.
This is someone who’s known me for 34 years but she was astonished, and tried to explain how watching a video works. You just listen! Like we’re doing right now! Not noticing that I’d asked for repeats quite a few times while trying not to dominate the conversation by my deficits.
I explained that my hearing aids need to be replaced, my audiologist just retired, and with the pandemic I just haven’t gotten out there. I have to make do with these for the moment.
Still she stayed baffled, and hearing-splained it to me again how simple it was: you turn on the video and you listen to it. While I was sitting there thinking, wait what? Are you okay?
Then later she said something that was even more off–such that for the first time I found myself counting up to figure out how old she was (80 can’t be too far off) and wondering how her family is doing if this is becoming their normal. Huh.
It was that or be offended. Actually I confess I was, while trying hard not to be–not so much for myself but because I knew it could hurt a friend who has a lot on her plate right now.
It helped that the woman was struggling to remember if she was getting this right. She wasn’t.
I shot off an email to my very patient friend Afton and tried to be over it.
And then the doorbell rang.
It was a new couple from church whom I’d only seen by Zoom with their young son: they had baked us some bread.
I had seen their son helping his mom working on that loaf at the end of the Relief Society Zoom because that’s when the meeting was and they wanted to get it to us before dinner and the timing was what it was, but I didn’t know any of that.
The kid had the bread. The dad was holding…
…A beautiful, big, tawny-colored rabbit about the size of a Maine Coon cat. Who was absolutely chill with having a complete stranger pet it behind the ears and down its soft back. I asked if I should have it sniff my hand first like a dog would want and they said, No, just go ahead and pet him, he’s cool.
Little tufts of light and dark blondnesses wafted into the air.
I mentioned the spinning wheel and the hair scrunchy I once made from a friend’s dog.
They got pretty excited and there are now definite plans to comb the rabbit. It’s not a long haired one but we can make do.
They had no way to know they had totally saved the day. The worry over that thing someone had said who probably really isn’t responsible for it anymore? It went poof with the lightness of bunny fluff floating on the breeze.