Chapter 1: The Neighbor

My name is Jimmy Stanton. I am a retired Sheriff from a small county located in Appalachia, which means in a southern state in the Smoky Mountains. Coal country! I graduated high school and won an all-expense paid trip to beautiful Southeast Asia with the Marines. Upon returning home I found my father had died from black lung. I am an only child, so I moved in with Momma and started looking for a job. I had made myself a promise I would never work in the mines but jobs outside the mines were scarce. I finally hired on with the Sheriff’s Department. I worked as a Deputy for almost five years when my boss, the Sheriff, was forced to retire due to health reasons.

Momma and a couple of my uncles talked me into running for sheriff. I was related to half the people in the county, one way or another, and everybody knew me. Besides no one else really wanted the job.

I won! After a few classes over in the capital I was ready to take the duties of Sheriff. The former Sheriff’s secretary was also his wife and she quit to take care of her husband. That’s how I met Becky. The county hired her as my secretary.

She was a blonde-haired blue-eyed beauty. Like in that old George Jones song, “Long and lean, every young man’s dream.” That is Becky. It was love at first sight, for both of us!

She got the job because she was a high school graduate, and she could file and type. To make a long story short we dated and were married six months later.

Momma died about 3 years after we married and since I am an only child I inherited the house. Becky found out she could not have kids and that was fine with both of us. She was the oldest of six kids and had helped her mother raise her siblings. She said if she never wiped another snotty nose or dirty ass it would be fine with her.

We saved her paycheck for the next twenty years and when I could retire with a full pension I retired, sold the house and we moved here to central Florida. Now we live in a “retirement village” with a lot of retirees from up north. Becky and I are the youngest in the community. I was just over the required age to live here and Becky, I guess you could say she rode in on my coattails.

This morning finds me sitting on our back deck drinking coffee and looking out over our lap pool. Not really a swimming pool more like a concrete trench. Becky loves to swim, and that pool is why we bought this particular house.

Becky opens the back door and lets our neighbor, Bobby Craig, step out. Bobby is one of the “northern” retirees. He lived his entire life somewhere outside of Detroit. He told me the name of the town but I don’t remember. He was an executive with Ford. I stand and shake hands.

“How’s it going Bobby?”

“It’s going.” He says and sits down at the outdoor table with me.

Becky asks if she can get him anything to drink and he declines. She says she will be out in a minute to swim her laps.

“Did you guys enjoy Vegas?”

Becky and I had just returned from a 10-day vacation to Vegas. Our first visit to “sin city” and hopefully our last.

“You know how it is, I lost money at the crap tables while Becky played the slots. We saw a couple of shows but did manage to get out to the dam. That was impressive.”

“Yeah it is. My wife and I took that tour about three years before she died.” He looked away. I know his wife died of a heart attack 5 years ago.

“How did your eye doctor appointment go?”

“Not good Jimmy not good at all. He says my A.M.D. (age related micro degeneration) is getting worse. He says I’ll be completely blind in 2 years. That really worried me.”

“I bet it does. That would worry me.”

“Yesterday I had to go back to my oncologist for the results of the tests I took last week. He used words like “inoperable” and “metastases”. Then he starts talking about continuing the fight. He wanted to start another “round” of chemo. He acted like this was a boxing match. I told him the last bell had rung and this fight was over. He started to protest, and I stopped him by reminding him of Einstein’s definition of insanity. We shook hands and I left smiling.