Timothy - 12. Chapter 12

There was one caveat, Stephen and I had to arrange for Mrs. Olman and Randy’s packing and moving to my parents’ home. On the Monday after Easter, Randy returned with us. He would help to pack up their belongings for the move. Mrs. Olman remained at my home, under the care of my sister and mother.

For the next few days, we took boxes to Randy’s apartment, and on weekends we would help him pack for the move. He had school to finish, and so did we. A few times during this semester, Randy would stay with one of us at the apartments. He pitched in, helping with the chores of taking care of the ground and flower beds.

We had everything packed and ready for Randy to move to my home by the end of the semester. Graduation was a quiet affair. My family came, except my older sister, Mrs. Olman, and Randy attended as our guests. Stephen’s grandfather came, and I had the opportunity to meet him.

Before Stephen left to work for his grandfather, he arranged for a truck. He helped Randy, and I move the packed boxes to the truck. He left, and I drove the truck with Randy to my home. Mom, Dad, Eva, and Mrs. Olman had left right after the graduation ceremony was over.

Arriving home, I helped to unload the truck. Mrs. Olman’s personal belongings were put in her room. Randy’s personal belongings were put in my old room. We put the remaining boxes in the garage. I spent a week at home, sharing Randy’s room. I chuckled when dad brought in a bedroll for me.

I drove the truck back to my apartment. I had a few meetings with University staff concerning my master’s programs. I did the yard work at Mrs. Kenner’s, and then I drove home. I was back to returning to my apartment on Friday and returning home on Mondays. Randy came with me to help. He stayed in Stephen’s room.

When I was home, we would go fishing, and on occasion, I stopped at Donnie’s home on the pretext of buying goat cheese. On one of our visits, they offered Randy a job of helping to take care of the goats. He wanted to know if he should take it. I told him I helped when I was in high school. He talked with his mom, and on our next visit, he told Donnie’s dad he would take the job. I no longer had any help doing the chores for Mrs. Kenner. I was okay with that. Randy needed to become integrated into the town to know some of the kids before starting high school.

Stephen returned, and we began working on our degrees, Stephen on his Masters and me on my Law Degree. It was different, we no longer tutored Randy, and strangely we missed those opportunities. We were kept busy between school, running, and working on Mrs. Kenner’s lawns and gardens. On occasion, we would call Randy and check on how he was doing. That allowed us to get caught up on Mrs. Olman as well.

The gentleman that had the apartment next to mine moved out. Mrs. Kenner told us his daughter arranged for him to go to a home that catered to older adults. She said he would be more comfortable among people his age. I wasn’t sure how to interpret that comment. He wasn’t sociable, and it seemed he didn’t want to engage in any conversations with any of us. Albert knew the most about him, and that wasn’t much. We were asked to clean his apartment so she could rent it.

The first place we looked was the refrigerator and kitchen cupboards. Food that was opened, we discarded. We gave the food that wasn’t opened to Mrs. Kenner, except the food in the freezer compartment that Albert wanted. Any linens that were left we washed. Albert took these as well. He had a small three-tier bookshelf in his bedroom that we put in the common room.

Mrs. Kenner checked the apartment and decided she wanted it painted. I wasn’t sure with our study load we would have time. As it turned out, with Albert’s help, we were able to paint the apartment the colors Mrs. Kenner wanted. It took us three weekends to complete this task. Now we wanted to know who would take the apartment.

That Saturday, a young lady moved into the apartment. Albert introduced her to us as his girlfriend. Two weeks later, Albert was walking around with a big smile on his face. Now we knew why the smile.

Graduate school took up a lot of our time. We still ran mornings and took care of Mrs. Kenner’s lawns and the various beds, flowers, and herbs.

We spent more of our time at the university library than in our apartments. Of course, most of that time was in the shower after our morning runs. But we always found time to share ourselves.