Okay, so the real reason I’m posting so much tonight. Nervous energy.
Mr. Rilch and I have been having a lot of remodeling done on our house, pretty much since quarantine ended. “Mike” is the carpenter, so he’s here most days. Except today. The other guy, “Heath”, showed up, but no call, no show from Mike. And that’s never happened before. Car trouble, illness, family emergency…we always heard from him at least by the time he was supposed to be here. Heath had heard nothing from him. I should mention that Mike and Heath are not a partnership; Heath was a friend of a friend who needed work, and Mike needed an assistant. Now we consider them both friends. Which is why I’m quietly flipping out.
His son lives locally but not with him, and he hasn’t heard anything. This is not good. All we can think of is jail*, hospital, or…Mr. Rilch got his address from the son, and if we don’t hear from him by the usual time, he’ll call the sheriff and ask for a welfare check.
Sigh. Well, if Friday was the last time I ever saw him, at least it was a good time. Mr. Rilch wanted to take advantage of what was probably the last warm weather, so he did hamburgers and bratwurst on the grill, I made scalloped potatoes and beans with bacon, and some beer was consumed. And earlier this summer, Mr. Rilch took both of them, and another friend, to a metal show. And I’m always sending them home with something freshly baked or cooked. I mean, I was bracing myself to be sad when the remodeling ended, not for this.
So can anyone think of a plausible reason why Mike would be unable to communicate, while still being alive and unhurt? Oh, and he’s in his mid-fifties, for what that’s worth. Also, a friend that he and Mr. Rilch have in common reported having texted with him while the Steelers were playing Sunday.
*Don’t know what he’d go to jail for, but Ted Bundy’s co-workers said the same thing. And I would say, he’d have called someone for bail money, but I think nowadays, one can post one’s own bail with a bank card. Correct me if I’m wrong.