A Short Story

From the dark side.

Let's try something completely different today, whatcha say?

A short story titled:



Who Will Miss Him When He's Gone
By Wag

I was driving down a long lonesome highway late one cold night when I spotted an elderly man walking along the roadway.

I slowed my car, made a u-turn and approached him and asked if he would like a ride.

He got a big smile on his face and said he would if it would not be too much of an inconvenience to me.

I said jump in, I would enjoy the company, and then we were back driving on the road.

He said he really appreciated the warmth in the car and appreciated someone would stop and give him a ride.

He asked if I would mind if he smoked and when I said I wouldn't mind he pulled out his pouch of Bull Durham, his papers, and he proceed to roll him a smoke.

As he was rolling his smoke, I asked him where he was headed and he replied he was going to the end of the road.

I laughed and said we are on the West coast and this road goes all the way across to the East coast and that is a long road.

He turned and looked at me and said the road is not as long as you think and that it could end at any time at the top of a hill or at the next curve, you just never know when or where the road ends.

I thought to myself, I've driven this road before so I would have to think about what he meant about that.

As we drove along the desolate road in the darkness I asked him if he had a wife, to which he said yes, but that she had died a few years back.

At that moment from the reflection of the dash lights on his face I saw a tear streak down his cheek.

I asked if he had any kids and he said yes he had two sons who he and his wife had revolved their life around when his wife was alive and the boys were young.

Oh, I said, do they still live with you? No, he said they both got married and moved out of the house and I don't see them much anymore.

I said well when the kids move away to other towns you sometimes don't see them as often as you would like too.

How far away did they move from you I asked?

He paused and took a long drag of his hand-rolled cigarette and he said one son had moved about three miles from him and the other moved about five miles away.

I said they live in the same town and you don't see them much, to which he responded well once in a while I see them at the grocery store, but not that often.

As I spotted another tear rolling down his face he added, you know they have their own lives and are very busy, but they did spend an hour with me after their mother's funeral and that was nice.

After about ten minutes of uncomfortable silence as we were driving by a remote military base, I asked him if he had ever been in the service.

He said he had in fact and had served in the Marines during the Vietnam War.

He went on to tell me he had lost a lot of friends to that war and said how hard it was when he returned home because of the way he was treated by people.

He said he served his country and even though the war was unpopular, he didn't understand why people blamed the soldier for a war the politicians didn't fight to win.

At that point we pulled into a little town and stopped at the gas station for gas and a pit stop.

Once the car was gassed and ready, I asked the old man if he would like a pop for the road.

At that point I saw him smile as he said, funny how some call them soda and some call them pop.

It's for sure we come from part of the states that called them pop and sure I'd love a Coke in a glass bottle if'n they got um.

We both had a laugh at that one as we sped off down the road drinking our Cokes out of the plastic bottles.

The old man finished his pop and pulled out his tobacco pouch and papers and rolled himself another smoke.

I felt he was feeling a little better so I asked him where he had worked when he came back from the service.

He said he worked for several years at IBM and then one day out of the clear blue they had what you call a reorganization and he was laid off.

He said after several years of odd jobs to make ends meet he landed a new job which ultimately he had all his life savings invested in and that job was with Enron.

He said once Enron crashed he saw his wife start to fade away until one day she reached the end of her road and passed away. He added his life after that had no purpose.

It now became clear to me what the old man meant when he said he was going to the end of his road.

He went on to say that he wasn't needed anymore. He said neither his kids nor anyone asked him his opinion or advice about anything any longer.

It's funny he said but people think when you are older you don't know anything and are of no use to them so they just ignore you.

He continued, people used to call me to help them move or to help them fix things. They called for advice or just plain wanted my opinion about things.

Then when I reached a certain age it stopped, and now the phone never rings and I am just passing time.

It's funny, now I have a lot of time for those things and no one wants any of my time.

We were coming into the town I was going to and sadly I turned to him and told him we had reached my destination and I was sorry I couldn't take him any farther down the highway.

I asked him if he would consider staying at my place for a while as I had really enjoyed his company.

Once again from the glimmer of the dash lights on his face I noticed another tear as he said how much he had enjoyed the trip but he could not stay as he knew he was about to reach the end of his journey.

I wished him luck and told him I hoped his road would never end.

With that he got out of the car and as I drove away he was rolling another smoke as he was slowly walking down the road.

As I tossed and turned that night trying desperately to sleep, I wondered, besides me, who will miss him when he's gone!!



That's a wrap for today's blog. Return once again tomorrow for who knows what!!!!