How old are you really?
Old enough.
No really...I know you are closer to sixty than fifty.
Mike breathed heavily.
I'm fifty three.
No...really.
Really.
Jim followed Mike into the living room.
I thought you were a lot older than that....I mean you look sixty.
Mike stared at Jim and thought he was kidding but he couldn't be sure. He in fact had always looked younger than his age. A lot younger. And Jim had started looking like an old man. His back was hunched and windburned cracks had appeared in his cheeks. More than all that he had begun to act old. Several times they had gone to Chicago and Jim had murmured, 'look at all these kids.'
But they had come for Jim's fiftieth birthday and to support Cindy who just had a double mastectomy.
So hows it been going?
Jim' shrugged.
She's driving me crazy. I set up a room for her and everything and all she does is bitch.
Mike took the beer. He stared at the room Jim set up. A lazy boy and a television mounted to the ceiling.
She wanted me to bring the TV down and I said no.
But how is Cindy...I mean, is she recovering?
Oh yeah...we are putting all that behind us.
Mike was still smarting from the age comment. Lately he had begun to think about age. People getting cancer. People dying. And now he was fifty three. Jim turned from the ceiling mounted TV.
You sure you are only fifty three?
In the car Mike listened to his wife talk about Cindy. Cindy was always neurotic. The rap was she drove Jim crazy with her Iphone texts. Jim was the beleaguered husband. Cindy was the nut. Mike listened and then they drove in silence
Jim said he thought I looked like I was sixty.
His wife looked at him.
That's ridiculous.
I think he's a real asshole.
Cindy didn't speak, then patted his arm.
He's just old.
www.billhazelgrove.com
Rocket Man...the book of fathers and sons
Old enough.
No really...I know you are closer to sixty than fifty.
Mike breathed heavily.
I'm fifty three.
No...really.
Really.
Jim followed Mike into the living room.
I thought you were a lot older than that....I mean you look sixty.
Mike stared at Jim and thought he was kidding but he couldn't be sure. He in fact had always looked younger than his age. A lot younger. And Jim had started looking like an old man. His back was hunched and windburned cracks had appeared in his cheeks. More than all that he had begun to act old. Several times they had gone to Chicago and Jim had murmured, 'look at all these kids.'
But they had come for Jim's fiftieth birthday and to support Cindy who just had a double mastectomy.
So hows it been going?
Jim' shrugged.
She's driving me crazy. I set up a room for her and everything and all she does is bitch.
Mike took the beer. He stared at the room Jim set up. A lazy boy and a television mounted to the ceiling.
She wanted me to bring the TV down and I said no.
But how is Cindy...I mean, is she recovering?
Oh yeah...we are putting all that behind us.
Mike was still smarting from the age comment. Lately he had begun to think about age. People getting cancer. People dying. And now he was fifty three. Jim turned from the ceiling mounted TV.
You sure you are only fifty three?
In the car Mike listened to his wife talk about Cindy. Cindy was always neurotic. The rap was she drove Jim crazy with her Iphone texts. Jim was the beleaguered husband. Cindy was the nut. Mike listened and then they drove in silence
Jim said he thought I looked like I was sixty.
His wife looked at him.
That's ridiculous.
I think he's a real asshole.
Cindy didn't speak, then patted his arm.
He's just old.
www.billhazelgrove.com
Rocket Man...the book of fathers and sons
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