Orientation, part 9

Amazingly, we had our first visitors after just two weeks. Another college friend, Ross, a drug company executive who traveled extensively, had a conference to attend in Portugal, and he’d offered to come and see us. I jumped at the chance to be with a friend from home—I was delighted! Ross arranged to fly from Porto to Madrid on a Saturday, after his conference ended, and he convinced his wife Carol to fly in from New York so they could do a little traveling in southern Spain for a week.

Carol was coming in first, and I was to pick her up at the airport around 6 a.m. I got Mike to coach me on the route to take, and I found her with no trouble. I was thrilled to see a friendly face, but she was tired, so I dropped her at her Madrid hotel and said we’d get together later.

Ross took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and once everyone had rested up we decided to have dinner together. “We rented a car for the trip,” Ross said, “so if you can give me directions to your house, we’d love to come out and see where you live!” I felt I knew enough by then to give the directions, so I told him how to take the A-6 out west to Pozuelo and then how to find us.

As I waited for them to arrive, I noticed that it was getting later and later. At 7 p.m. I looked at Mike. “They were supposed to be here by 6,” I said nervously. “Do you think they’re lost?”

“Don’t worry about them,” he said. “Ross speaks Spanish, right?” In fact, Ross had spent a semester after college teaching high school Spanish. “If he gets lost, he can get directions.”

It was after 8 when they finally arrived, looking frazzled. “That was really confusing!” Ross said. “You told me to take the A-6, but after a while I had to choose between the N-V and the N-VI—there were no other roads to choose from! Did I misunderstand?” he asked, showing great forbearance.

I went pale. “Oh, God, I never told you that the A-6 and the N-VI are the same! I’m so sorry!” I’d gotten conversant enough with the highway system that I’d forgotten that not everyone had my high level of competence. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, I guess,” I said.

Of course, even 8:30 p.m. was quite early for dinner at a restaurant, which was what we had planned, so we gave them the house tour and relaxed for a while, which put everyone in a better mood. We drove to a newly opened restaurant nearby and had a delicious meal, and when it was time to say goodbye I took Ross aside.

“I am really sorry I put you through that mess getting here,” I said.

“No problem,” he said. “We got here, and it was an adventure. It’ll be another good travel story for me.”

“So can I ask you to do something for me?” I said. He nodded. “I cried to Evan on the phone for about half an hour the other day, and I think he might be worried about me. Could you call him when you get home and tell him I’m okay?”

Ross smiled. “Sure,” he said.