Surprise!!!

Picture a pretty normal day after work. I come home, turn on the computer, eat some stuff, change out of my dirty field work clothes, all that usual boring stuff. This day was a little different though because Forrest was traveling to Haiti, so even at 6 pm in Guam (3 am in our new home city of New Orleans) I was expecting to do some online chatting with him, listening for that wonderful little sound that lets me know my love has just IM-ed me. I was changing my clothes when I heard the front door creak open. My first thought was that it must be my neighbor’s girlfriend’s 4 year old, but I didn’t hear him manically yelling for me, so it couldn’t have been. Assuming it was one of the guys from the hatchery needing something I peeked around my bedroom door.

There he stood. My mind was slower to comprehend than my feet were, because I was already standing in front of him, arms around his neck, before I could understand how Forrest could possibly be in my living room! I was laughing and crying all at the same time, repeating “How can you be here!?!”

I’ll admit, even as I kissed him a part of my mind was remembering that segment on NPR about how solitary confinement makes people go loopy. I was really hoping that the time living and working alone hadn’t just loosened the bolts a bit, that I wasn’t crying and kissing some hatchery worker come to retrieve the giant box of squid from my freezer.

So Forrest was here. He lied to me about Haiti. He and Tommy had planned things behind my back and I had never suspected a thing. And for a glorious 12 days I got to spend every minute with Forrest. It was so fun that when he left I thought, nuts, now I’ll have to go back to work- even though I’d gotten as much field work done with him while he was here as I had the whole time before he came.

Just to make it an even more magical time, all the animals came out for Forrest. I’d only seen one feral pig and one monitor lizard before Forrest came, and only fleeting glimpses of them. By the time he left I’d seen 4 pigs, including one at rather close range, and 3 much larger lizards. Not only that, but we saw 2 brown tree snakes. Since they are arboreal and nocturnal Tommy thought it very unlikely that I’d ever seen one while doing field work, but while out with Forrest one day I practically stepped on a 6 foot snake! I was yipping like a startled Chihuahua and as we watched it glide away I thought, nuts, maybe I should have killed that thing. But I knew I couldn’t. They are so long and slender and graceful. (Plus I cringe just stepping on a snail.) And only a few days later we saw another, this time very young with the physique of a shoelace and sandy brown with mysterious sandy brown eyes. That time I wondered how I could even want to kill one, even with all the ecological havoc they’ve wreaked.

All week long we had adventures. We exhausted ourselves with field work during the day and went out to try new foods at night. Now he’s back in the Big Easy, starting law school today, but before he left he was trying to figure out how we could live in Guam next summer. Keep your fingers crossed.

It was such a wonderful surprise to have him here that I stayed giddy for a week after he left. I couldn’t be sad that he was gone because I was still so surprised and happy that he even came. My neighbor Frank told Forrest that he raised the bar too high, now his girlfriend is asking whether Frank would do that for her. Forrest laughed and said, just ask if she would be mean enough to leave you for 3 months. He definitely has a point, it’s been a great experience but I wouldn’t do it again. Still, I now have proof that Forrest loves me thousands of dollars worth.