There was a good reason why today felt weird to me. There was a disturbance in the force and I didn’t know it until I got to work.

The close on the sale of my boss’s family business was set to close tomorrow, just for the buyers to make demands today that were too much for my boss and her family to feel comfortable with selling to them. Just like that, her plans of starting her path of retirement got sidetracked…and I think it made her relive the passing of her brother, our beloved coworker and owner of the dock as so many questions as to what to do now presented themselves.

It was a quiet night, except for the lovebirds who enjoyed being young and having a life ahead of them filled with all kinds of opportunities. I loved feeling their vibe as the other side of the spectrum made me want to do everything under the sun so my boss didn’t have to lift a finger tonight. But it got to be too much at one point as we got hammered by customers. We pushed through it, and she even thanked me for not needing her in that moment.

We were so behind at the end of the night, that I realized boxes hadn’t even been taken to the dumpster yet after the storms rolled through. Still raining, I decided I would take care of them.

They were barely holding together when I made several trips taking my time disposing of them while the rain kissers me over and over again. I welcomed that tenderness. That cleansing.

We finished up, and I sent my two coworkers home for the night. As I was clocking out myself, she looked at me…completely exhausted…and confessed are didn’t get to print out paychecks today. I, of course, told her that was okay, and asked if she needed me to come in early tomorrow. Her response was heartbreaking.

“I don’t know what I need.”

I said I did and hugged her. I felt her weight drop into my arms and heard her breath deepen as she started to fight back tears. Still in the embrace, I said it had been a day. She replied that it indeed had been a day.


*apologies for errors as I don’t want to proofread this right now