9.
 Bill supported himself along the wall.
You're never ready when this part of the story plays out.
He was afraid of falling down the stairs.
I thought this only happens to other guys. What a fool I've been.
His hand holding the cane trembled. His anger was stuporous, blackening, overwhelming. He threw the flowers in the back seat. For a while he sat in his car.
He stopped for coffee and donuts, then decided to go back to her place instead of home. He stayed parked down the block, too crushed to do anything more than steep in misery and watch. As he did so, dark rain clouds moved in overhead to match his mood.
So, she was in sales too.
Boy have I been taken, he thought punching his palm. Serves you right, his conscience said. Here I was, telling her about how to rope people in.
Sure enough, by noon she was bidding the white-haired man goodbye. "Thank you thank you" wafted in the air.
And at one, as Bill grimly sat watching, an elderly man showed up, holding something in his hand. The wallet, no doubt.
Bill thought about killing her. Naw.
Then he thought about killing himself. Naw.
I've had a good time, he thought. How much longer could I have kept up anyway? All it cost me was about a thousand bucks and some sleepless nights. Call it tuition.
It was drizzling by the time he pulled up at his own house. He took the flowers, and carried them along as he hobbled to the front door. He made a detour to the wooden fence at one side, where the trash cans stood. He lifted the lid on one of the cans and was just about to throw the flowers in.
Phoebe interrupted his thoughts. "Bill! Why aren't you at work? And look at those beautiful flowers."
He stood with cane in hand, rain dribbling through his hair, and looked at the flowers as if he’d never noticed them before. The rain washed away his sins, and they were forgiven. He was reborn, a new man.
"Oh Bill," she said, "they are a little wilted, but how thoughtful of you. Are you sick? Come in here right away, you're getting all wet, darling. You're shaking like a wet mutt, you poor guy!" She rushed out to take the flowers. "Come in, come in!"
"Thank you, thank you." he said, grateful from the heart. He bowed, like a baron to a great lady. It was wonderful—like meeting her for the first time.
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Copyright © 2018 by Jean-Thomas Cullen, Clocktower Books. All Rights Reserved.
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