The Burden Of Work

Lane DeGregory: The call comes about 5:15 p.m. every day.

In the tidy cubicle in her Tampa office, Julie Hopson stops typing. She looks up at her co-workers filing past her desk on their way out.

Her cell keeps ringing. It’s her husband. She knows he’s been waiting all day to make this call.

“Hey, Babe,” he says when she picks up. “You coming home?”

Julie doesn’t want to go home.

She fantasizes about driving across the bridge, over the bay, past the small house she can no longer pay for, just sailing on and on, her worries fading in the rear view mirror.

But she wouldn’t want to use that much gas.

She piles papers by her purse. More work to do tonight. More overtime to earn.

“Sure,” she finally says into the phone. “I’ll be home soon.”