To Read in Bed

Up with a bang at 2:50AM.  Thunder rolled across Shunyi and it demanded my attention.  My older one had a plane to catch at seven.  She’d be picked up by her boyfriend at 5:00AM.  At least she doesn’t have any connecting flights.  Thunder and lightening in Beijing tend to gum-up all departures. 

Now that I’m up, I’m up.  My wife isn’t here beside me.  She with my younger one back in New York. If she was here, I’d get up out of bed and head down to my office so as not to disturb her but given the circumstances, I reach over and turn on the light and read in bed.  I’ve been doing this every morning now, and I’d forgotten how lovely it is to read in bed and drift off then drift back, sleeping more as needed, reading more as interest merits. 

This is a collection of various reading materials about Brazil. “The Brazil Reader: History Culture, Politics” edited by Robert Levine and John Crocitti.  I’d bought this months ago and never received in time to read before visiting Brazil.  Early in the work I’d finished off a Cambridge, “Concise History of Brazil.”  I’m assuming all of this is foreplay before I get to dive in to “The Collected Stories of Machado De Assis” which off on the shelf beside me with its green and grey and black jacket. 

It rained today.  It rained and it made me nostalgic for the rain of my youth.  I’ve always lived places where rain was a constant.  Beyond these summer downpours it rarely rains in Beijing.  I stuck my head out into the back porch and considered standing for a while in the rain.  The big leaves of our modest back yard tree looked so lovely breathing out a different hue of wet green today. 

Monday, 7/29/19