Chapter 21: Anticlimax

It was good while it lasted. The band had a bit of success with one album, and one original hit 45rpm. Then we faded, submerged under a deluge of new bands playing newer styles of music and we were never heard on the radio again. The band dissolved into individuals each going their separate ways, pursuing their own dreams.

I did refinish my weird drum kit in a blonded wood finish with Ruth’s help, and it’s stacked in a closet with my few old golf clubs, relics of my past. We never married. Anybody. Ruth and Rose went to sea as they planned, and visited us during their breaks ashore. Eventually they retired with seafarer union pensions to Ruth’s old house and the our girls are frequent visitors. They love their Aunt Ruthie. Mom and I share my parents old house but seldom speak to each other.

Rightly predicting my career as a gigolo would be as short lived as my youth, I invested my money while it poured in during the band’s hayday. Rental properties, small houses like my parent’s and Ruth’s, several small apartment buildings, and numerous parking lots are my income producing holdings. On paper, my net worth exceeds a million dollars, only because of the real-estate values. Parking lot attendants wages and property taxes, leave only a small steady income for me to live on.

I still regularly dance and compete in the Texas Two Step. No success in keeping partners. Changing partners every one to two years on average keeps us from gaining the long practice needed to beat the top lifetime dance partner couples, but we win small purses.

Susie and Cathy are married and expecting their first borns. Dad passed away a tired lonely old man, and monster doc died in prison of colon cancer. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving asshole.

My shoulders stoop, my ass drags, my waistline expands, and life goes on. Until it stops. I’m keeping myself interested.

Anticipating being a grandfather. Hoping for boys. What more is there to tell? Someone else will need to sum up my end. I don’t plan on being a ghost writer.

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