The Old Man and the Widow Read online



  The Old Man and the Widow

  Author Robert Ray Moon

  Copyright 2013 Robert Ray Moon

  ISBN: 9781311475688

  Chapter 1 A Sensible Wife is Hard to Find

  The old man story is one that you can read about in part in your daily news paper or other media every day. I call him the Old Man for I don’t want to identify him or the other people in the story.

  As you might guess he wasn’t always old for he started out like most all of us with a mom, a dad, and an opportunity to make something out of him self.

  As it happened he fiddled away a lot of his time and had to play make up in order to amount to something. Upon entering the work force he struggled to find his niche but after a couple false starts he found his place in the world and prospered.

  He wooed and won his mate who was only half of what he needed accordingly to some but “they” always have something negative to say about everybody.

  Personally I don’t know if he could have done any better or not but they could have managed their life better especially at the latter stages.

  At least they had some kids to help them when they got old and for that they were thankful. The old man worked his way up the ladder and was a success. He in one sense was too successful for he didn’t have time to do everything he should have.

  He finally gave the responsibility of handling their finances over to his wife who wasn’t up to the task. It wasn’t that she wasn’t smart enough but her failings were in the social area.

  The people that gravitated toward her were those who felt destined to solve the world’s problems with other people’s money. They thrived on problems that didn’t exist or even needed solving. They insisted in involving her in every cause they could dream up and eventually telling her how much she could contribute to the cause.

  In order to keep favor with her crowd she would have to meet their expectation when they would say, “Can we depend on you for a thousand dollars or can we put you down for five hundred each month”?

  The old man was too busy to pay attention to her social calendar which amounted to going out with her friends two or three times a week which had a new “Fix it agenda” each time.

  The mistake she made was she thought that since her husband made a lot of money and his pay went directly into the bank she could write as many checks as she wished. When her balance was low she would urge him to go to the higher ups and demand more money. The time came when he asked one time too often and they let him go.

  His wife couldn’t understand how the company could get along without her husband and felt he would get rehired when they realized the mistake they had made. But that never happened for they were in a downsize mode.

  She exacerbated the condition by continued her association with her friends and writing checks. The day came when her so called friends realized the old man had got fired and her checks began to bounce. They needed to separate themselves from her. This still left a lot of people wanting to be paid in cash for the bad checks.

  With an empty bank account The Old Man had no other option than to with draw funds from his retirement account and pay her debts. He was able to keep their health insurance but they now had to pay for it themselves.

  The doctor said the decline in her health and the stroke had been brought on by all the stress she had been under. They had all different kinds of treatments they wanted to try on her but when the health insurance ran out they had no more ideas to try.

  When she passed on, the kids insisted that she have the most expensive funeral the mortuary could provide. This just about emptied his retirement fund but the kids felt good about it even though they considered it was their inheritance that was paying for it. The old man tried to get a job but he learned to hate the words, “Over qualified” with a passion.

  All he wanted was to put food on his table not to make a million a year. He had to sell his twelve room house and buy a small two bedroom one. After he paid all his fees and taxes he had enough money to get along for a while until he spent enough of it so he could qualify for the government’s free stuff.

  When he was close to the amount he could have and get assistance he put his house in his kid’s names and they promptly sold it and he had to move. It was just a case of them needing the money for vacations and such. He got a small room because his kids didn’t have space for him and besides they couldn’t afford to care for him.

  One line of reasoning that made that more reasonable was, “He should have planned for his old age.”

  After learning to play the government’s freebie game he ended up in a two bedroom apartment and enough to barely get along. He got free meals from different charitable groups which helped him greatly. He saved enough money to buy a used overstuffed chair and a small TV. At last life was good until he met a woman at one of the free food places. She seemed to fill a lonely spot in his existence and after some time she moved in with him.

  Chapter 2 The Room Mate

  His new room mate contributed to their cost of living and he enjoyed her company. Then one day he got a temporary job for a few days for which he was grateful.

  They let him off early one day and when he got home he saw a fellow sitting in his chair with her on his lap. He watched for a while and then went into the bedroom and saw his bed all mussed up. He pulled the sheets off and went down to the wash room to wash his sheets as there were some stains that weren’t there when he left that morning.

  He knocked on the door next to his place and asked if he could borrow their kid’s baseball bat and they said, “Yes but bring it back.”

  He left the bat just outside his door and asked for an explanation for what they had been doing. She spoke up and said, “He will be staying here and you might as well get used to it.” Then the no good guy got in his face and said the same thing. “From now on you will sleep on the couch if I let you.” He went on saying a lot of threatening things that weren’t very nice.

  The Old Man didn’t say anything but went into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. The woman said to the new fellow; “I guess we scared him so bad we won’t have any trouble out of him.”

  After an hour he came out with her suitcase packed and sat it down where she was sitting on the new man’s lap. They didn’t pay any attention to the old man at first but watched as he went out side and got the bat which he held behind him so it couldn’t be seen and said, “There’s your suit case and I want you and your friend out of here and don’t come back.”

  They didn’t move but instead told the old man he couldn’t sleep there tonight so blow. She was still on the new boy friend’s lap and hugging him when the old man swung the bat with all his might and almost broke the new guy’s legs. She fell off his lap while the Old Man threw her bag out the door.

  The boy friend was on his knees when the Old Man gave him a couple more licks on his buttocks and shoulders. He was hollering for her to help him get out of there. The Old Man took him by his collar and dragged him out the door and said, “If you don’t get out of here I am going to call the police.”

  The Old Man tapped the railing on the walk way and said, “I’m coming to give you some more if you don’t hurry.” This speeded them up only a little for Boy friend was doing the best he could.

  The Old Man wiped his chair off with a damp cloth and when it was dry he started watching TV. Little later he went down and got his sheets from the dryer and re-made his bed.

  That was the last he saw of her boy friend, but a week later the woman came over to where he was eating his free meal and asked if she could ask him something. He said, “I guess so.”

  She said, “Was
it because you really cared for me you got so upset at me and the boy friend?”

  He laughed like he hadn’t laughed for some time and said, “No it wasn’t.”

  She said, “Well why did - - was it because we messed up the sheets?”

  He said, ‘No although I didn’t care for that I thought it was uncouth to do that and leave it.”

  She said, “Please tell me why you got so mad.”

  He said, “It was because he sat in my chair and nothing else. Of course I didn’t want him there but it was the chair. I couldn’t stand the fact that the two of you were in my chair!”

  She said, “I miss being with you.”

  He said, “You are nice to say that but maybe you are missing the new man also.”

  She said, “I never want to see him again for he was a no good. It just took me a while to realize it but there’s nothing worse than a phony Romeo.”

  The old man said, “I’m glad you figured that out for you could do better.”

  She said, “What about you? Maybe you need to find a widow woman that you can grow old with.”

  He said, “According to the mirror I’m already old.”

  She laughed and said, “You’re only as old as you feel. The problem is you aren’t feeling anything but unless I’m wrong the right widow could change all that.”

  He tried to keep a straight face but finally he had to give in and started to laugh with her. He said almost under his breath; “Do you think…” he then regained his composure and said, “No way. I’ve had my turn at wedded bliss and didn’t do very well at it.”

  As she left she turned and said, “If I get the chance I’m going to give it another whirl for I still have a little fire left in my bosom.”

  He swallowed hard and said; “Good luck on that.”

  Chapter 3 Fire in the Old Bones

  Old Man swore he would never talk to any woman again but after thinking over all of what his ex-room-mate had said, he decided to take back that vow.

  He couldn’t bring himself to think that he might not be without some passion left buried somewhere down in his loins. The very thought repulsed him and once again he rebuked her for her audacity. She had no right to try to plant such ideas in his head, ideas he now couldn’t expel from his thinking.

  “If I was a drinking man I would drink until the thoughts disappeared from me for if I don’t get over her suggestions - - - she will have me chasing after every widow in town.”

  He went to the nearest pharmacy and asked for something to make him sleep. When he arrived home he took a double dose and slept till noon the next day. When he awoke and came to himself he felt different somehow.

  It was like he not only awoke from his sleep but from the doldrums that had all but disabled him. He didn’t have much money but decided to splurge and get his hair trimmed and get rid of that hang dog look that he had become used to.

  He then went down to where they gave away used clothes and met a newly widowed woman who was on her way to the mission. Her husband had just died and she wanted to get rid of his clothes for they reminded her of him.

  The Old Man found that they were not only his size but were almost new and stylish.

  He told her he would take them from her and save her having to answer a lot of questions that would only cause her pain and grief. She had several boxes and asked him how he was going to get them to his house. He said, “Don’t worry I’ll manage somehow.”

  She said, “Nonsense get in my car and I will drop them off where you live.”

  Reluctantly he got in and a few minutes later they were at his apartment.

  They unloaded the goods and she said, “Thank you for helping me get rid of these clothes. I hope you will wear them well.”

  The man who lived next to him was a big help to get his bounty into his apartment. Old Man spent the rest of the day hanging his suits up and putting everything in order. As he hung them up he looked in the pockets and found several dollars the widow had forgotten to take out. He thought I can make good use of these. There were several other things including a wallet with some phone numbers and pictures of scantily dressed women.

  He thought, “I think I see why she wanted to get rid of his clothes.”

  The next morning there was a knock at his door. He opened the door and it was the woman who gave him the clothes. He said, “I hope you don’t want the clothes back for I have just put them in order.”

  She said, “No, no, I just wondered if you found a wallet in one of the coats?”

  The old man thought, “Here goes my money.” He started to lie but when he looked at her he said, “Yes do you want it?”

  She said, “Yes if you don’t mind. I think there is some information in it I don’t want to get around for our children’s sake. It wouldn’t do if they found out what a rounder he was.”

  The Old Man said, “Here it is except for a few dollars which I have here.”

  She took the wallet and said, “You keep the money.” She went through the wallet and took everything out of it. She then handed it back to the old man and said, “Here, I hope you can get some use out of it.”

  She then asked him where he worked, to which he answered, “No where, I can’t seem to get a job.”

  She told him to dress up in one of the suits and shoes and go to the place on the card she gave him. She said, “Don’t go until tomorrow but be there around ten in the morning. Ask for the head man and he will give you whatever job you are qualified for.”

  The old man thought, “My life is turning around. It had been a long time since he had gone to church but he decided he should beat it down there and thank God for his deliverance. He spent some time down at the altar.

  He didn’t have to do much confessing for he hadn’t done anything bad just mostly a few bad thoughts, but he gave thanks for the turn a round he was experiencing.

  The next day the Old Man decided to go to the restaurant and get a good meal. When he got there, coming out of the café was his former room mate prancing out with her arm around a man. She didn’t say anything but winked as she passed him.

  While he could have had many thoughts the only that went through was, “I wish her well.”

  Chapter 4 The Interview

  It was the next day and almost ten o’clock. He had showered even though the shower hardily worked. Emerging with one of the fine suits, he looked very respectable.

  He felt a little naked without a briefcase when he addressed the secretary and told her he had an appointment. After the obligatory wait of fifteen minutes the secretary told him, the head man would see him now. He felt like he did when he went for his first interview as a young man.

  He was told to have a seat and the head man asked for a resume to which the old man replied, “Ask me any thing you want to know for I can answer you in more detail while looking directly at you.”

  The head man said; “Well then what can you do?”

  The Old Man said, “Anything a CEO can do and more.”

  This took the head man aback for a minute, but then he asked a litany of questions that the old man answered fully and then said, “What job was I being interviewing for?”

  The head man said, “That was to be decided by his skill.”

  The Old Man said, “My skill area starts at the top that is with your job, although I wouldn’t take your job if it was offered because I know what you have to put up with each day. Then I could handle any of the jobs from your level down to the messenger boy. It only remains for you to decide on how I could help you do your job knowing all the time your job is safe.”

  The head man had never interviewed any one like the Old Man. Then the Old Man said, “Let me ask you a question if I may. “Have you been ordered to hire me by someone?”

  The head man said, “Yes, as a matter of fact I have been told not to let you out of here without offering you employment of some kind.”

&nbs
p; The old man said, “I thought so. If you don’t feel comfortable hiring me, just tell whoever ordered you to do that - - tell them that I refused the job offer and went on my way. I would never contradict you and it would be your way out.”

  The head man said, “You are hired. You start tomorrow. Just come in at eight thirty and you will be given a list of jobs that are open and you can select the one you want. If there isn’t any thing on the list you want then we will create the job you want to have.”

  The Old Man said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  On the way out the Old Man saw the woman who gave him the new suits and told him to come here for a job. He said, “It was you who ordered the head man to hire me wasn’t it?”

  She pretended to deny it for a while but then said, “Yes it was me.”

  She went on and said, ‘When I first saw you I thought you were a bum. Then I got curious and wondered if you were a bum or like so many had fallen on hard times. That is why I had the head man offer you a job. I wasn’t sure you would turn up and I made a bet with myself that you would and you did. What job did you take?”