Keeping Us Smiling

August 24th...

We moved from the second floor to the third and from one building to another. Each building has a couple of staircases and elevators. When I was moving some boxes, I tried to use the same staircase or elevator each time I changed the floor. Fortunately I didn't have to do it too many times - my main job was to pack and unpack the boxes, my dad and Len were the ones to move the boxes from one apartment to another.

One day when we were all still in the old apartment packing up boxes, my dad came in to pick up more stuff. He had a smile on his face. He explained that he used the other building's staircase thinking that it was ours and without thinking twice entered the wrong apartment.

He said the door was unlocked, so my dad let himself in and noticed a man sitting on a couch and watching TV. Thinking that it was Len's friend visiting us, my dad approached him fast and shook his hand. The guy returned the shake and that's when my dad realized that he was in a wrong apartment. He explained to the man in Polish about what had happened, apologized and left. And that's what kept him smiling when he came to our apartment minutes later to pick up more boxes.

When Len heard the story, he admitted doing a similar thing. He entered the wrong apartment (one would think the guy would learn his lesson and lock the door) but having realized he was in the wrong place, he apologized and left.

And, on the day of my parents' departure, Len went to the new apartment where my parents were staying to pick up their suitcases, and load them in the car while I stayed in the old apartment to nurse and get K ready to go to the airport. It was about 4 am. On the way back to our apartment, Len made a mistake again choosing the wrong building, wrong floor, wrong apartment. When trying to open the door and realizing it was locked, he started knocking gently, so that i could let him in. When I wasn't answering the door (I was waiting for him in our apartment), he started knocking louder and louder thinking I fell asleep. He said it took a while and he believes he saw a light being turned on when he realized where he was. That's when he ran.