Day 204 - Strength

 STRENGTH

Prompt - Strength : Think of a time when you've been physically or emotionally strong and use that as inspiration.  

I am not a strong man.  Pigeon chested, narrow shouldered, easily puffed.  I don't readily put on weight, which is a good thing, but that also means I don't readily put on muscle either.  Charles Atlas would forever have been kicking sand in my face.

So why did I let myself be roped into helping Jimmy with his house move?  What possible use did I think I could be?  What possible help did he think I could be and was he really that desperate for bodies?  Apparently so.

There were three of us.  Jimmy himself of course, short, wiry, played a lot of football, but did much the same desk job as me.  And his pal Graham.  It was easy to see why Graham had been asked.  While I was a good half a head taller than our house moving friend, Graham towered over me.  Must have been at least six six.  And as wide as the pair of us put together.  Graham looked like he could pull the van, not just load it.

We set to.  I asking Jim what the plan was.  Plan?  He didn't know he needed one.  The big man just looked like he wanted to get on with lifting big things, and no plan was going to help or hinder him.

"Plan, yeah.  We need a bit of a plan, don't we?  Shouldn't we try to make the best use of the space in the van so we don't have to make two trips?  And make sure the stuff we might need at the other end is last to go on?  You know, kitchen stuff so we can get a drink or whatever?"

Jimmy looked impressed, as if I was the first person in the world to come up with this idea.

"Yeah, nice one.  Plan.  So - what d'you think?"  This to Graham.  

"Can I just move some stuff while you do the plan?"  Keen lad, our Graham.

Jimmy looked at me.  I could see the role of senior planner falling my way so I tried to improvise.

"What big things have you got that could hold smaller stuff?  Wardrobe?  Can I have a quick look round to see?"

"Yeah, there's a wardrobe in there" he said, pointing to the bedroom, "and that sort of cabinet thing I keep the booze and plates and stuff in."

They seemed like a starting point so I suggested the pair of them got the wardrobe out while I looked at what could go inside, and if there was any other big things we needed to put in first.  And that's what happened.  I made a few notes, turned that into a list, and stuck it up by the front door.  Plan made.  And, without too many questions, that's what they went with.  Which also meant it was my turn to carry stuff.  I grabbed a couple of bin bags that looked like they might squash into the wardrobe, and went out to the van.  Where I saw...  WTF?

They'd put the wardrobe in, then blocked it off with the cabinet before putting anything inside.  But there were a couple of small boxes in the cabinet already.  Did I accept that this was the way things were, or ask the to get it sorted out into a more practical layout (but who was I to tell them what to do?), or... try and do it myself?  Well, what was the worst that could happen?  (I tred not to think about the answers to that question.)

So I dragged the cabinet out, turned it and opened the wardrobe door.  I'd just managed that and turned, sweaty and breathing hard already, to face the others as they came out with a few chairs.

"No, no, not those yet.  They can be tetrised in later, once we've got the big stuff.  Bring me some more medium size boxes and big bags like these."  And, to my amazement, they did.

Which left me in the van, trying to bring order to the madness.  I eased the wardrobe along a bit, to make best use of space, then started filling it with the boxes they brought out.  Bugger- they were boxes of books.  But I staggered the three yards between van door and my target, got the box in place, turned to see more boxes, and two vanishing backs.  I worked on.  Filled the closet to capacity, moved the cabinet and filled that.

"A few smaller boxes!" I shouted on one of my brief glimpses of the porters.  I needed to work faster, they were starting to box me in.  Breathing hard, aching more with each minute, I move furniture around, filled what I could with what I had, stacked, tied, sweated.

"How much more?"  I asked a suddenly tired looking Jimmy as he leaned on the tailgate.  

"No much.  Just the stuff you said we should leave to the end."  He looked up at the assembled construct of his worldly goods.  "Jeez Andrew, where did you get the strength to do all that?  I kept saying to Graham we'd best go and help you in the van, some of that stuff was really heavy, but every time we came back you'd moved the thing s we were talking about.  How'd you do it?  You didn't even stop for a few biscuits like us."

"BISCUITS!  You had biscuits and you didn't tell me?"

"Well, you seemed really into it, and I didn't know if it was part of the plan, so I thought you'd best be left as you knew best."

Maybe I did.  Maybe I'd done more than I'd thought myself capable of.  But I still wanted biscuits.