24
July was creeping up on us. If the hospital volunteers wanted to do a Winter Holiday themed party, we needed to start getting our plans in order. So far, Tracey's suggestion had been more of a vague idea. If we wanted to pull it off in time, we had to start actually getting things done.
I was thankful for the distraction. Between what had happened with my mom and what went down with Nathan, I didn't want to spend my days at home brooding. I took on extra shifts at work and at the hospital. My coworkers were pleased to give away their weekend shifts so they could go out camping and hiking and do other summer activities. And Tracey never said no to more volunteer hours.
Most of my extra hours were devoted to the event. I spent a lot of time in dusty closets in the children's ward searching for anything we could use. Most of my evenings were dedicated to arts and crafts projects, making the decorations. If there was anything I couldn't put together myself, I checked out stores around town. It was hard finding New Year's products in the middle of summer. And since we didn't have much of a budget, I had to ask the stores to give us the stuff for free as a tax-write off, which meant asking to speak to managers and higher-ups.
I'd gotten into volunteering so I could spend time with kids, and now I was haggling with retail stores and begging for donations. I wasn't exactly enjoying my assigned duties.
But it distracted me from my problems, which had been my intention, so I couldn't complain about it too much.
"What about a crystal ball?" Tracey asked me.
I looked up from gluing streamers onto cardboard. "Crystal ball? Like the ones psychics use?"
"Like the one at Times Square," she said, all energy and enthusiasm. "We can rig it so the ball drops at the last ten seconds, like just on TV."
We were planning on doing the event in the middle of the day, with noon being the official time the clocked ticked over into "the new year." I liked the idea of counting down like on TV, but a crystal ball?
"I don't know if I'll be able to find something like that this time of year," I told her.
"We can make it ourselves," she said, which I knew really meant thatIwouldhave to make it.
"You want me to glue crystals to a huge balloon or something?" I asked dubiously.
"Where's your imagination?" she grinned. "No, we're going to get a styrofoam ball from a craft store and roll it in silver glitter."
"You do know glitter is going to get everywhere, right?" I said. "We'll be finding pieces of it for months."
"I think there's a craft store just a few blocks away," Tracey continued, ignoring my warning. "When you've got a spare minute, do you mind picking one up?"
"Sure," I sighed. It beat going home and moping.
Tracey looked at me with concerned. "Are you feeling okay? You're looking a little down."
"Just… stuff," I said with a vague wave of my hand.
She made a sympathetic sound. "More boy stuff?"
"Boy stuff, parent stuff… I've just got a lot on my mind," I said. "I'll be okay. I'm just glad I have something fun to keep me busy."
Although I wasn't sure how fun playing around with glitter was going to be. I'd done enough crafts as a bed-ridden kid to know exactly how messy it was.
"I really appreciate this, Becca," Tracey said. "You've always been such a great help, and the kids love you. I really don't know what we'd do without you."
I gave Trace a small smile. "Thanks. I really love coming here, too."
"Oh!" she said, with a slight wince. "I forgot, I wanted to ask you something. Nancy wasn't able to come in for her volunteer shift this evening. Again."
The pinched look on Tracey's face told me she was sick of Nancy always flaking out. I wondered if soon Nancy might be fired from her volunteer position.
"So there are some adults in the oncology ward who are going to miss their weekly visitor," Tracey continued. "Would you mind filling in?"
"Sure." I had nothing else to do that night.
Tracey gave me a quick hug. "You really are the best."
Visiting patients, buying some craft stuff and putting together a crystal ball. It was enough to keep me busy.
