ERNIE AND ERNESTINA: Searching

Book Two, Chapter 48: Decisions, Decisions

“I’ve broken up with Christy,” Joshua tells me.

Over the years, he’s told Ernie and me this lots of times.

“If I go back to California, we’d fight. The fight would start immediately. There’s nothing in California for me to go back to right now.”

Also, he’s decided to keep the Charles Street house. He’ll repair it and rent it out. He told Christy this.

“You’re so wishy-washy,” she said to him. “First you’re going to keep it, then you’re not, and now you say you are. You’re so indecisive. You don’t have a plan for your life.”

Christy’s a heavy hitter, but she can also hit on the truth. Yet Joshua seems to have made up his mind. It’s taken him a while, but some decisions do, especially when we’re not used to making decisions.

Practice. That’s what he and I both need. That’s what he and I are both getting . . . practice at making decisions.

“My life in California is highly speculative,” he says. “I never know when an acting job will fall my way. At least this house is real.”

So, he’s keeping Charles Street and letting go of Christy . . . for now, anyway.