"What are you driveling about?" she said. Not the correct response, as I'm sure you agree, but I let it go. Best to avoid side issues. There are times when staying on topic is the best course of action, or else you risk ending up in the ditch. I've been in the ditch and I don't care for it.
"I'll tell you what I'm driveling about," I said. "My plans to teach a public qigong class at Straw Valley has been kiboshed for the rest of the year--that's what."
"I don't see how visiting the Cove has anything to do with classes at Straw Valley," she said. "Besides COVID19 has ruled that out anyway."
"That's just it," I said. "I'd think the cause and effect were perfectly clear. You know the basics of course. I went to the cove for an afternoon and got dragged into that ranygazoo over Gwyn's ring. The upshot of it all was that I got quarantined in my room at the inn just before the pandemic hit. Surely you remember the details.
"I remember that you were caught looking for a mouse in the fishing guide's room?" she said.
I gave her a look--one that was meant to sting.
"Ms. Wonder," I said, pacing my words, "you know perfectly well that I was not looking for a mouse. I was looking for that damned ring, at Gwyn's insistence. I've admitted that the mouse story wasn't one of my best but it's not easy to come up with zinger when you're caught bending by Constable Vickie Mason."
She began waving me off with a raised hand and I found myself questioning the loyalty of this better-or-for-worser.
"What does all this have to do with qigong classes at Straw Valley?"
I drew myself up to my full height in response to all that hand waving and questioning.
"Due to my staying an evening longer than planned...," I began.
"Until you climbed down the water pipe the next morning," she said.
Now I raised a hand but I didn't wave it about. I had the feeling that she was not entirely in sympathetic harmony with the Genome and I thought it best to cut her remarks short. Besides, we seemed to be going into side issues again. After all, what do water pipes have to do with the topic at hand?
"The delay caused me to miss my appointment with the new managers at Straw Valley and, by the time I got home, we were under stay-at-home guidelines and Straw Valley was closed for business. Now, given the current state of affairs, my plans to add a public qigong class this year are in smoldering ruins."
"Have you thought of offering a qigong class online using Zoom?" she asked, and I was beginning to note a more compassionate timbre in her voice.
"Zoom?," I said. "Hmmm," I said as I turned it over in the coconut. "Hmmmm."
"I'll leave you to think about it," she said as she walked out of the room.
"Yes, do," I said, "and don't say anything about this to The Aunts. You know how they like to get involved."
"You can count on me," she said.
"Hmmm," I said.
"Oh," she said as her head appeared once more in the doorway.
"I thought you were gone," I said.
"Me too," she said. "But I have just one question. Why does this conversation come with a picture of a gazelle?"
"Simple," I said. "We studied a poet in that school of mine who said that every time he comes to love a gazelle--or words to that effect--he losses it. And losing the gig at Straw Valley makes me feel like I'm one gazelle short."
"I see," she said. But I'm not all sure that she did see. Still, it was nice of her to say it.