The most embarassing moment of my life switched from throwing up at a concert in eighth grade to falling flat on my face at the Sioux Falls medical conference the moment my high heel hit a woman in the face.
"I'm so sorry," I said as I picked myself off of the floor.
The woman handed me my shoe. "Watch where you're walking," she snapped.
After putting on my shoe, I carefully walked to the library and found an empty chair to organize the annoying papers.
Before getting anything done, I decided I needed to call home. I found a phone booth, inserted a dime, and waited for someone to pick up.
"Waters' mortuary, you stab 'em, we slab 'em."
"Calla!" I said with a mix of disbelief and humor. "Did your grandmother hear you say that?"
"CALLA SELENA WATERS! THAT IS NOT THE CORRECT WAY TO ANSWER A PHONE!"
"Judging from that, yeah," answered Calla. "Grandmother, it's just Mom," she called to Mother.
I rubbed my forehead. "How's everybody doing?"
"We're great," Calla said. "Michelle and Elliot got into a fight last night. Sleeping right next to their room is SO fun." She snorted. "How's the conference?"
"Well, I dropped my files three times, four if you count when I fell over the fern," I replied. "And I nearly killed a woman with my shoe."
My daughter laughed. "You're kidding."
"Nope."
We talked for a few more minutes, and finally I decided to get back to the papers.
XXX
It took an hour to organize the files that had only taken me twenty minutes to get together the first time. But when I was going through them the first time, I didn't have the distraction I had now:
Hawkeye Pierce.
Why are you thinking about him? I asked myself. After all, you left Hawkeye. Remeber?
The thing was, I did remember.
And I was trying to forget.