{"id":10602,"date":"2023-10-16T04:58:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T04:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/?p=10602"},"modified":"2023-10-16T04:58:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T04:58:51","slug":"retirement-deferred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/retirement-deferred\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement Deferred"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ray knew what awaited him at the garage at the end of the Manhattan to West Caldwell run, the good cheer from the maintenance crew, a twenty-second speech from the supervisor wishing him well in his retirement, maybe a bottle of booze thrust at him with some humorous words, a few silly passengers remarking on how they would miss the teddy bear he had affixed to the payment terminal for thirty-five years and how they delighted at his lighthearted patter during the forty-minute rides across the Meadowlands of New Jersey. \u201cLadies and gentlemen, if you look down, you will see the lights of Paris. We will be arriving shortly.\u201d Ray\u2019s announcements, offering varied visual highlights depicting arrival at European or Caribbean destinations, never failed to elicit a few laughs from the commuters on their way home, especially on dark, slushy winter evenings.
\n+++++<\/span>At the terminal on this warm summer evening, Ray opened the folding door one last time and untied the teddy bear and stuffed it into his windbreaker pocket. A few stalwart passengers along with some mechanics and drivers clapped as he emerged from the bus. Lenny the bookie stood apart for he was a different kind of person, the guardian angel of everyone\u2019s basest aspirations. His sad eyes and the reddened crease in his lower lip testified to afternoon drinking and the cigars he smoked in the city.
\n+++++<\/span>The dispatcher ambled over, wielding a box in his arms and forcing a rare smile onto his rock-hard face.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI know Crown Royal is your favorite,\u201d he said, handing over the box.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWell deserved,\u201d Lenny added, clapping his puffy hands and then reaching for one of the cigars he knew he couldn\u2019t light up yet.
\n+++++<\/span>Ray expressed good cheer at the pleasure he would have imbibing the whiskey, a few of the other drivers and mechanics wished Ray good luck, and everyone dutifully laughed after each nervous joke. Finally, a funereal sadness descended upon the gathering for there was nothing more to say, and everyone dispersed quickly as though embarrassed at having witnessed something illicit.
\n+++++<\/span>Ray walked to his car, and Lenny the bookie caught up with him. \u201cHere\u2019s my gift to you, Ray. Put a tenner on Nadine\u2019s Rose to win in the fifth at Belmont tomorrow. It\u2019s a sure thing. Put a hundred if you really trust me.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWhat are the odds?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cEighty to one, but that\u2019s the gift part of it,\u201d Lenny said. \u201cShe\u2019ll come in.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>Ray handed five twenties to the bookie. The only thing that troubled him was that so many of his bets lost while his wife Eunice\u2019s bets had the unique ability to pay off. He handed the teddy bear to Lenny. \u201cThrow this in the garbage, will you.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>He didn\u2019t expect a retirement party when he got home to the raised ranch he occupied with Eunice, and he was grateful that a crowd of people didn\u2019t jump up from behind the sofa when he entered and threw his windbreaker over the back of a chair. In the forty years Ray had been married to Eunice, he had discovered that everything he did outside steering the commuter bus through traffic had been based on Eunice\u2019s bridge parties, her country club charity events, and gatherings in front of televised sporting events at other people\u2019s houses. The alienation he accepted ruled out any discord.
\n+++++<\/span>One day, years earlier, a woman stepped onto his bus in Clifton, and, after giving her perfume time to intoxicate him, began a conversation about her lonely life and her part-time job as a buyer at Macy\u2019s. The conversation carried over into the terminal and a week later to the cheap room in a single-room-occupancy hotel that Ray had rented. Situated three blocks from the bus terminal, the room provided a convenient place for them to meet on the afternoons Ray had a few hours\u2019 layover. He remembered how the woman\u2019s refined manner had delighted him on that first afternoon as they huddled together while the menacing cacophony of the hotel flowed through the narrow hotel corridors like swamp water. On that first afternoon together, in the confines of the dingy room, with bright sunlight streaming through holes in the green shades, they said not a word until the woman from Clifton doused the bare light bulb and whispered, \u201cOkay, cowboy. I\u2019m all yours.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>These blissful interludes ended a few months later with a note the woman left for him on the lone lopsided bed in the room. She explained that she would no longer be taking the bus from Clifton. That was it. She offered no heartfelt sentiment, no explanation.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI\u2019ve advertised for a housekeeper,\u201d Eunice said that evening while they ate the special chicken pot pie she had made. She was a short woman and she had a way of bobbing her head when she spoke as if pecking at some ineffable source of inspiration. Her soft face displayed the placid contours of a marshmallow bronzed over a campfire and wobbling a little over its molten core.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWe\u2019ve never had a housekeeper,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy now?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cYou\u2019ll be home more, most likely leaving clothes and dishes everywhere.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>No, I won\u2019t, Ray thought. I\u2019ll be down at Ambly\u2019s Ale House. He decided not to argue. At some point during the past thirty-five years, Ray\u2019s aspiration to do something great had become reduced to doing anything besides drive the bus, no matter what. Ray lived with the dream that he would someday open a tavern just like Ambly\u2019s Ale House down on Main Street. Joe Ambly was considerably older than Ray, and maybe he\u2019d die or, better yet, simply let Ray buy a share of the business in order that Ray could learn from a pro.
\n+++++<\/span>Being a partner at the Ale House and pulling the beer tap all afternoon or mixing Manhattans on ladies\u2019 night or talking about the Knicks or betting on the trifecta at Belmont became something to strive for.
\n+++++<\/span>The next day, being Saturday, Ray decided to work in his garden as he did most weekends. He purchased two black currant bushes at the nursery and began digging at the far reaches of the yard behind the tall forsythia bush. He had set up a bench back there and had a small vegetable garden. He could sit on the bench on a Saturday or Sunday drinking a beer and reading the newspaper behind the sight-lines of the bridge party participants who would peer out the back window from time to time wondering where he was.
\n+++++<\/span>Planting completed, Ray showered and put on fresh clothes. Eunice had gone to the club to engage in the usual chatter, fund-raising, and bridge playing that occupied her life. Ray thought he might go down to Ambly\u2019s Ale House and check in with Lenny the bookie to see if the long-shot Nadine\u2019s Rose came in. He thought he might make discreet inquiries about the state of Joe Ambly\u2019s health, even directly to Joe if the old guy seemed in a good mood.
\n+++++<\/span>The doorbell chime interrupted his plans. Ray opened the door to a man wearing dirty blue jeans and an untucked plaid shirt. \u201cI want to talk to you about your landscaping,\u201d the man said. His bleary eyes refused to settle on anything, and he seemed about to faint.
\n+++++<\/span>Ray had seen the man before, sitting in an old blue and white Buick Roadmaster down the street for the past week, accompanied by a woman who reminded him of the woman from Clifton. Ray noted that the car had been parked in front of a different house each day.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m not interested,\u201d Ray said.
\n+++++<\/span>The man pushed his way into the house and withdrew a revolver from the back of his jeans.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI really want some money. Now fork over some coin, Pops,\u201d he said.
\n+++++<\/span>Ray stepped back. \u201cI keep it in the kitchen for moments like this. Come right this way.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cNo funny business,\u201d the man said, following close behind Ray.
\n+++++<\/span>Upon entering the kitchen, Ray snatched up a metal rolling pin his wife had left on the counter after making the crust for the chicken pot pie and smacked it across the man\u2019s face. The man fell to the linoleum, still clutching the revolver. Ray jumped on the man and struggled to wrest away the weapon, wriggling between them like a hooked striped bass. The revolver discharged. Ray looked into the man\u2019s eyes, which widened in surprise and then resignation, and Ray got up and with relief observed the small red stain on the man\u2019s shirt.
\n+++++<\/span>Ray placed the revolver deep in the utility drawer. He found a few dollars in one of the man\u2019s jean\u2019s pockets but no car keys. Those had undoubtedly been left with the girl who was waiting anxiously with the engine running for the wad of cash her hunter gatherer companion had been expected to find. The wallet, containing a Massachusetts license, revealed the man\u2019s name was Calvin Douglas.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWell, Calvin, time to take a trip,\u201d Ray said. \u201cLet\u2019s hurry before Eunice gets home.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>The man still breathed, and the filthy plaid shirt he wore slowly dampened with blood.
\n+++++<\/span>Grabbing Calvin\u2019s shirt at the shoulders, Ray dragged the man out the back door, across the porch, down the porch stairs, and along the length of the lawn until he came to where he had just planted the two black currant bushes. Ray yanked the bushes out of the ground and began digging once again, making the hole wider and deeper. He then rolled the body of Calvin Douglas into the hole. Ray detected a pained sigh from the injured man. It sounded very much like his own sigh whenever he had sat in the bus seat for the morning commute. It was the sigh the bus made when he first released the emergency air-brake.
\n+++++<\/span>He began shoveling dirt over the body. Who was going to miss some bum from Malden, Massachusetts, driving a beat-up Buick Roadmaster? Calvin Douglas hadn\u2019t paid his dues by driving a bus into and out of Manhattan for thirty-five years. Calvin Douglas hadn\u2019t paid any dues at all, Ray asserted to himself with each shovelful. Calvin Douglas and bums like him chose the easy way out, and it always led to disaster. Ray replanted the black currant bushes and tamped down the soil.
\n+++++<\/span>Just as he completed his task, the woman he had been observing all week accompanying Calvin in the Buick Roadmaster appeared from around the forsythia bush. Slender and attractive, she wore torn jeans and a black T-shirt. Her shoulder-length blond hair looked freshly brushed. Judging by her tapered fingers and carefully applied red nail polish, Ray guessed that she had good manners and came from a good family. He was used to sizing up people quickly, attributing characteristics from the smallest bits of evidence, and he always trusted his first impressions. He wondered if she would call him Cowboy. Ray liked quality people. When he was a part-owner of Ambly\u2019s Ale House, he would figure out a way to attract a quality crowd.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m not surprised to see you,\u201d he said to the woman. \u201cAre you looking to join him?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI heard the shot,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody else did. I\u2019ve been watching.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>He knew she had been the brains behind the failed operation. And now he detected threat in her blue eyes.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cYou did me a favor,\u201d the woman said. \u201cHe was a pain right from the start.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>He set aside his shovel and noticed that a little spot of blood had found its way onto the front of his clean shirt. He stared at the woman, sure she wanted something from him.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cNow I can do you a favor,\u201d she said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI want you to hire me as your housekeeper. Your wife put up a sign over at the supermarket.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cYou do your research,\u201d he said. He wanted her to say more, to reveal herself, but she remained silent.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cMy wife might want a say in who is hired as housekeeper,\u201d he said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWhat happened to the man who makes quick decisions and buries someone alive?\u201d she said. \u201cDo you really need to wait for your wife to see if I\u2019m suitable to dust the sills.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>She stared at him, and her stare communicated a threat.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI rode your bus one day. Into Manhattan and back again. I could feel the heat of your internalized rage. And I did not say hello to your dumb little teddy bear. I didn\u2019t fall for that one.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>He knew he was no match for her. She looked inside him, and he was afraid how little she might see there.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cCome on. Let\u2019s walk up to the house,\u201d he said. He thought he could retrieve the revolver from the utility drawer and shoot her, but that would necessitate digging another grave and by that time Eunice might be home.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI can start work tomorrow,\u201d she said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cMy wife wants someone who can make tea sandwiches and mix drinks. She thinks she\u2019s the Queen of England.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI have a good upbringing,\u201d she said. \u201cI can do all that. Come on, Ray. You need me.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cHow do you know my name?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s right there in the bus. I\u2019m Cathy, by the way. The man you buried was Cal. He had the misfortune of being lazy and dumb. There were easier marks than you, Ray. I cased this neighborhood. Plenty of people would have handed over their cash and jewelry, but I chose you, Ray, because I knew you had too much anger percolating inside to tolerate Cal\u2019s nonsense. You proved me right.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m honored,\u201d he said.
\n+++++<\/span>They walked into the kitchen. Ray felt relieved that there were no blood smears on the floor.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWhy do you want this job?\u201d Ray asked.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI need to get my feet back on the ground,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd besides, I wanted to team up with someone like you, Ray.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>He began to feel as though she were a disease or parasite that resided inside him and needed to be expunged.
\n+++++<\/span>Ray knew he wasn\u2019t going to get an opportunity to buy into Ambly\u2019s Ale House if he couldn\u2019t figure out what this woman wanted and somehow get rid of her. \u201cWhat is it you really want?\u201d Ray asked. \u201cYou didn\u2019t succeed in robbing me. Who are you going to try to rob next?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cRay, I had no intention of robbing you. I used you to get rid of Cal, and you did a bang-up job, excuse my pun.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cNow what?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m going for the easiest mark of all. Lenny the bookie, of course. He keeps scads of cash in his house. Your wife has been quite friendly with him in case you haven\u2019t noticed.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>Now he began to understand. Maybe Eunice was having an affair with Lenny. She got the really hot tips, Ray only got the lukewarm ones.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cYou\u2019d better get out of here now. Come back at nine tomorrow ready to work. Tonight, I\u2019ll tell Eunice I hired you.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI\u2019ll expect you to keep your word,\u201d she said. \u201cSee you then.\u201d She turned to go, flashing a knowing smile at him.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWhere do you live?\u201d he called after her.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cIn a crummy motel out on Route 220. I have a good discount. In time, maybe I\u2019ll get to move in with you and Eunice. You have a lovely guest room, I\u2019m sure.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cYou come from a good family,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy are you being like this?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cLike what?\u201d she asked, but she got into the blue and white Buick Roadmaster and drove away, not giving him a chance to explain.
\n+++++<\/span>The next morning, just before nine o\u2019clock, Ray saw Eunice and Cathy speaking out on the driveway. When he had informed Eunice the evening before that he had hired Cathy as housekeeper, she accepted his decision with no complaint. It occurred to him that the two women might be colluding against him.
\n+++++<\/span>Entering the house, Eunice said, \u201cShe\u2019ll work out fine. I sent her out for some sandwich things. I\u2019ve got the bridge club coming over this afternoon. What are your plans?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>Ray had no plans other than going down to Ambly\u2019s Ale House in the afternoon. \u201cMaybe work in the garden a little,\u201d he said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI\u2019ll have to check on those currant bushes you planted,\u201d she said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing much to see,\u201d he said. \u201cThey won\u2019t bear fruit until next July and then not much.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>She looked at him disparagingly, and he wondered if she knew anything he didn\u2019t want her to know. He retreated to the garage to retrieve his gardening tools before walking to the end of the yard to make sure the burial ground was secure.
\n+++++<\/span>Later, Ray observed that Cathy had done a nice job making tea sandwiches and cocktails for the bridge club. Five card tables had been set up in the living room. Cathy lingered in the kitchen awaiting any instructions that might issue from the din of chatter and bidding. Ray slipped into the kitchen to grab one of the extra sandwiches.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cYour wife is happy with me,\u201d Cathy said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cDon\u2019t fool yourself,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s as threatening to you as Cal was to me. She\u2019s drawing you close so she can do something horrible. You still have a chance to drive off and never return.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cDon\u2019t worry about me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere until I get some of Lenny the bookie\u2019s cash. He keeps a large amount of cash at his house. He launders some through the Ale House. I bet you didn\u2019t know that, Ray. I\u2019ve been watching. Even your wife is part of his operation. Those charity functions of hers are just laundry operations. Did you know that, Ray?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>Ray shook his head. In all the years he had been driving a bus back and forth, his wife inhabited a world that grew and flourished outside his scope of understanding. Whenever Cathy spoke, he felt his ignorance biting him in his soul.
\n+++++<\/span>After the bridge party, when Ray presumed Cathy had gone back to her motel or wherever she intended to do her spying, Eunice spoke to him as they ate leftover sandwiches for dinner.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI know all about the body back in the garden,\u201d she said in an ice-water voice. \u201cAn innocent man,\u201d she added.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cHe came here to rob me,\u201d Ray said. \u201cHe had a revolver.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you call the police?\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cSo they could ask me all sorts of questions on my first day of retirement? No thanks.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cAnd that girl you hired. I know you two are in cahoots. Do you think you could fool me? I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if these sandwiches are poisoned.\u201d She took a declarative bite and washed it down with a sip from her fifth highball of the day.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cYou can fire her if you want,\u201d he said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cFire her?\u201d she snapped, getting up from the table. \u201cCome with me into the guest room. I\u2019ll show you what I did. I wasn\u2019t born yesterday.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>Together they walked down the hallway to the guest room. In the doorway, Eunice motioned to the twin bed farthest from them. Cathy reposed upon the bed, on her back, eyes shut, face placid.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cShe\u2019s dead, Ray. I had to do it, just like you took care of that horrid friend of hers.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>His initial shock at seeing the body of Cathy turned to relief that Eunice and he were now in this together. Evidence of each other\u2019s crime reduced the likelihood of either of them going to the police. He could get his hands on some of the money she earned laundering cash for Lenny the bookie. He could invest in the Ale House and become an integral part of the operation. This was all going to work out beautifully.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cI guess I\u2019ll have to bury her then,\u201d he said.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cNo, Ray, that won\u2019t work,\u201d she said. She swung a cast-steel pipe wrench, a lovely old tool that Ray had picked up at a yard sale, and hit Ray in the side of the head. Guided by Eunice\u2019s sturdy hands, he dropped onto the unoccupied twin bed. Eunice hit Ray\u2019s head again with the pipe wrench, and fireworks flashed in his vision and then faded like dying embers in a nighttime sky.
\n+++++<\/span>\u201cBy the way,\u201d he heard Eunice say, \u201cNadine\u2019s Rose won by a length. I\u2019ll enjoy that nice payout.\u201d
\n+++++<\/span>He struggled to see life again, blue skies, tall glasses of beer, the expectation of a strange, cultivated woman in a dark, intimate room smelling like soiled clothes, and in the final sliver of consciousness allotted to him, he looked toward Cathy, lying on the other twin bed. He noticed that she had turned her head toward him. Her eyes were now open. She winked and mouthed the word \u201csorry,\u201d and that was the last thing he saw.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[Image Credit : Photo by Mohammadreza Charkhgard<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray knew what awaited him at the garage at the end of the Manhattan to West Caldwell run, the good cheer from the maintenance crew, a twenty-second speech from the supervisor wishing him well in his retirement, maybe a bottle of booze thrust at him with some humorous words, a few silly passengers remarking on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":10619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1456,1588,1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c","category-chris-fortunato","category-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Zyqm-2L0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Retirement-Deferred-Image.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.close2thebone.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}