Cross

My sister got Jim completely wired to doing the crossword every morning with his coffee. When she was here, it warmed my heart to see them out there on the deck at 7:00 a.m., with cigarettes and coffee, belly-laughing about words. He has continued this ritual since her departure, sans belly-laugh.

The problem for me, now, is that he hands the unfinished crossword off to me when he comes in the house, and then I don't get into the bathtub on time. This morning, for example, I was running around at 8:40 a.m. with my hair on fire trying to get dressed and out the door to get to work.

It's hard to put down the crossword, especially when someone passes you the baton so ceremoniously.