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| Recycling: We had to throw this object out, but hopefully its message can still be put to use somewhere. |
Her matter-of-fact expression told me she would not let herself be affected by all my doomsday predictions. "Come on," she said "let's move this mess out of the way, put the mattress on the floor and think about it in the morning".
Stunned by her practicality, and too tired to muster arguments against her response, I followed her instructions diligently. It seemed quite precarious, with the wrecked frame of the bed balanced up beside the wall and our mattress laid out below, but we were beyond fretting over such peculiarities. With just 4 hours left before we had to get up again, every possible moment of sleep was precious. I lay back down and tried to push the anxious thoughts to the far corners my mind.
Seemingly moments later, the alarm shocked us out of bed. After we had finished our guzzling and gorging, Hebbat finally turned to me and addressed the problem: "Look, if you want I'll pay for a new bed." It was a noble offer. I knew she didn't have enough money to do that though, neither of us did. And besides, it wasn't her fault - it could have just as easily been me in the wrong place at the wrong time when the bed decided to collapse. Buying a new bed also posed more problems however - we were living in the middle of Paris. The most heavy duty forms of transport available between us were my bicycle and a seat on the metro. Sure, we could get a bed delivered, but this would take days to arrive even if we were incredibly lucky (remember we were living in France). What we used to use as a sofa was lying in a twisted heap taking up most of the room in the studio. It meant we were forced to eat breakfast either standing up or sitting on the floor cross-legged in the remaining corner of free space. Waiting days for the delivery of a new sofa-bed seemed out of the question - we needed a solution for tonight.
"Just leave it with me for today", I said, "I'm going to take a closer look and see what I can do". Even though we had only caught a paltry 4 hours, that short sleep had done the trick. Alongside all the negative scenarios swimming around in my head, there seemed to be a thin flicker of rebellion dawning. Hebbat looked slightly surprised. As she squeezed toward door in order to start her hour-and-and-a-half commute to work she re-iterated her offer and told me to call her if I changed my mind. I thanked her again and wished her a good day at work. Crossing my fingers as the door closed behind her I silently hoped that no such call would be necessary.
