this is a story about frank and ethel. i should note at the outset that frank and ethel are not their real names, but that's how i'm going to refer to them here.
frank and ethel are a couple of regulars at the library. i usually see them at least once a week, almost always on fridays. it might sound weird to refer to someone as a "regular" at a library, as opposed to, say, at a bar like in the book i finished reading earlier tonight, but we get them.
but back to frank and ethel. they usually show up together. ethel & i pretend to give frank grief for having a higher fine on his card, even when it's ethel's fault. they both pretend to butcher my name and blame it on the fact that they're old and senile. they're not that old, really - i'd put them at early 70s at the most.
when i start my friday shifts, my co-workers have become accustomed to me asking if frank and ethel have been in yet. if frank & ethel are in line and i'm helping someone, they'll wait until i'm available so we can have our few minutes of banter. they're adorable, really, in that way that folks who know each other well and are totally comfortable with each other can be. when you compare them to some of our other regulars, you get why frank and ethel are a couple of my favorites.
i mentioned that they're in almost every friday, right? i can count on one hand the number of times ethel's shown up by herself, the most recent of which was earlier this year when it seemed like everyone in the greater chicago area had the plague. frank was sick, ethel said, so she made the trip solo. i jokingly demanded frank's presence the following week so i could see for myself that he was ok...and next week, they were both there. i smiled.
a couple of weeks ago, i was at work on a friday and realized that the afternoon had gone by w/o a visit from frank & ethel. i shrugged it off - it was cold and maybe they decided to skip that week. i even asked around to see if they'd come in while i was on break, but they hadn't. (i did mention that frank & ethel are a couple of my favorite regulars, right?)
this past friday, i was talking with a co-worker about another regular of ours, and realized that frank & ethel hadn't come in again. it wasn't like them to miss 2 weeks in a row. vacation, i rationalized. or maybe the weather. i was concerned, and by the end of the night, my co-worker decided that it wasn't weird at all for me to be concerned about a couple i barely know. regulars. they do that to you.
this morning, i was at work and took a call from someone who'd found a book of ours and was wondering if we could get in touch with the patron and let them know about it. a quick search and guess what? the book was checked out to frank! where was this good samaritan calling from? the hospital. apparently frank had been admitted (and released, thankfully) and left the book behind.
i was sad and relieved at the same time. sad b/c frank had been ill, relieved b/c he was both out of the hospital and b/c now i knew (or at least could speculate with some basis in reality) why he and ethel had been missing from the library.
when i got a free moment, i called frank & ethel to let them know about the book. i wound up leaving a message for them, and at the end, i wished them both well and let them know that i missed seeing them. b/c i did. i do. b/c this is what happens when you have regulars. when you make a connection, however tenuous, with a couple of strangers that you see on a regular basis. you miss them when they're not around. you get worried when you don't see them.
and then you feel weird for being slightly more concerned about a couple of strangers than some folks you've known forever. and you try to get over it with all kinds of explanations that, if you're going to be honest with yourself, ring kinda hollow.
and then you find yourself missing some other regulars in your life for various reasons, and you try not to admit to missing them and worrying about them b/c, really, wtf is that going to prove anyway?
but this isn't about you (ok, me). this is a story about frank and ethel, and how i'm hoping they'll come into work on friday and i can pretend to lecture them about staying away w/o giving me a heads-up, and how i'm hoping they'll tell me that it was nothing serious, and we'll joke about frank's fines and promise to see each other the following week. b/c that's how frank and ethel would want it, and who am i to interrupt the flow of regulars?
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