The Bookcase Had Other Plans

February fifth. The text came in Thursday evening: 'Saturday free? I need another set of arms.' I said yes before I read the second part, which was 'bookcase, second floor, no elevator.'

I want to be clear that I do the Tuesday climbing sessions. I have arms. I was not worried. What I did not account for was the particular physics of a tall, solid-wood bookcase in a hallway that is about four inches too narrow for comfortable two-person maneuvering. We got it to the stairwell landing and then we just stopped and looked at each other for a while. Simone said something instructional. I said I understood the instructions. I did not fully understand the instructions.

Simone giving instructions. Elena not sure about the instructions.

We got it there. I don't know exactly how. At one point my knee was involved in a structural capacity. We set it down against the wall on the landing and stood there for probably ninety seconds not talking, which for Simone is an eternity. She put one arm up on the top of it like she'd planned the whole thing from the beginning. I was still looking at my own hands. Someone had set the phone up on the low shelf before we started, I don't remember whose idea that was, and it caught us right at the end, both of us just leaning there, and it is maybe the most accurate photograph of friendship I have taken by accident.

Made it. Barely.

My lower back has opinions this morning that it did not have on Friday. Worth it. The bookcase looks good, for the record. Simone says it does. I'll take her word for it since I was not there for the second half of the setup, I was in her kitchen drinking the glass of water I had fully earned. There's something to be said for the favor that costs you a little more than you budgeted. I think the word for it is friendship. Or possibly hubris. Unclear.