Worrying and Waiting

First, the worrying.

Shawshank gets three free phone calls every week now. He called after dinner tonight. Since it’s not one of the pre-planned nights to call, he freaked me out yet again. He was pretty upset when he called the first time last night, and he doesn’t hide it very well. When I ask him what’s wrong, his normal answer is usually something like “I just missed you.”

Yesterday, during his second call, I told him, “I need you to know that it scares me if you call at different times. But you need to be honest when I ask what’s bothering you. I want to help, and I can’t help if you don’t talk to me. And I don’t want you to not call because you think it will scare me.” Hopefully, things will get better for him. The pandemic is scary enough when you’re on the outside of the barbed wire. On the inside, he doesn’t get anywhere near the information I do, and certainly not at the pace we get it out here.

I know he’s worrying about his hearing, probably foremost among everything. Bosnia, one of the other guys in his unit, has had his last two court hearings postponed because his lawyer has been quarantined. This week, at the most recent conference with the judge, he asked to be released on bond. However, the judge said he wouldn’t feel comfortable making that arrangement without Bosnia talking to his lawyer first. No one knows how the border closures are going to affect their deportations. Regardless, they’re all stuck there.

Then, the waiting.

In the meantime, I’m still cleaning house. Both of the charities I’ve been donating items to have stopped doing residential pickups for the time being, and I’ve put some of The Great Sort on hold. This weekend, I’ll clear out some of the housewares stored in the basement. Just because no one is picking up my things, it doesn’t mean everything has to stop entirely. The sooner the house is clean, the sooner I can put it up for sale.

I don’t expect the process to be quick at all. Right now, no one is going to buy a house in the middle of a pandemic. I can only hope it goes smoothly, and before Fall.