Bonnie and Elijah are in front of me, she with the lemon-infused seltzer. I accepted the refreshment and sunk onto my stoop, hung up on Time Warner Cable and smiled. She sunk down next to me. We chatted about the stressors of moving, and she shared my pain with Time Warner Cable, too. I remember that she seemed so calm and peaceful. I, on the other hand, felt like such an all-over-the-place disaster, but it didn’t seem to matter to her. I felt safe.
Later that afternoon I met her son Zaq. That evening he asked me to sponsor him in his John Adams Middle School (JAMS) jog-a-thon to raise money for LCD projectors in every classroom. It was about 100 hours after I’d asked his Mom to sponsor me.
So I gleefully accepted sponsoring Zaq in the jog-a-thon. It was taking place the following morning. Now this was something worth sponsoring! Much better, I thought, than what Bonnie had accepted sponsoring me for.
When I awoke the next day, I lay in bed with that weird feeling of knowing that I had something to do. How could I have something to do? I didn’t have any friends in LA, and I hadn’t yet begun working.
The Jog-a-thon!
I zipped out of bed and rifled through the closet for my puffy, goose down coat, again, olive green, designed by J-Lo. Half way over to the school I rethought the coat. Not the right look, I thought. I didn’t want to embarrass Zaq with some weird, ghetto coat from NYC.
I left it in the car and decided to just shiver.
That morning I called Bonnie and pumped the address of the school into my new Garmin. The woman inside the Garmin GPS started talking to me. Seven minutes later I arrived to find Zaq clutching a yellow sheet of paper that was to serve as a parking permit for me. Opps. Shoot. I had forgotten to comb my hair. I hope I wasn’t going to embarrass him with the rats nest at the back of my head.
Whew! He didn’t seem to notice.
Moments later I was shouting and shooting.
I don’t know how else to say it except just plainly: I love Zaq. He’s just … the best! I decided to offer him a job as my script assistant…
TO BE CONTINUED…
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