Jeff threw the covers back and levered himself up from the small hard bed. He sat on the edge of the bed and felt the cold seeping into his feet from the cold linoleum floor while he stared once again at the bleak, almost antiseptic room. It wasn’t well decorated at all, having only the uncomfortable institutional furniture thousands of other rooms more or less like it came furnished with. He’d been told he could bring in his own furniture and decorations if he wanted. How the hell he could do that though was a mystery to him. All his stuff burned up with his house.

It wasn’t really his fault the house burned. I mean, he thought, how did they expect him to remember gasoline was more explosive and dangerous to light charcoal with than that namby pamby lighter fluid he’d ran out of? Of course, when he jumped and sloshed some out on the wooden deck when it whooshed didn’t help but damn...

His world had just gone to hell after that woman up and died on him. Damn house didn’t get cleaned except twice a week when that bossy cow came in ... what was her name anyway? Well, didn’t really matter, she didn’t come around any longer since the house was gone. Those girls that cleaned his little room every day sure weren’t very friendly but they sure had the female bossiness down pat. “Now Mr. Jones, you know you shouldn’t do that, or Jeff, be more careful when you urinate. There’s getting to be way too much on the floor. Maybe you should sit when you use the toilet, or, well, you get the drift.

He was looking at yesterday’s clothes laying on the floor trying to decide if he could bend down and pick them up to wear again or if he needed to try and get some clean ones from the dresser and closet when he heard a knock on his door and, uh, yeah, whats-her-name stuck her head into the room and said, “Good morning Jeff. I see you’re up. You need to hurry now, it’s almost time to go down for breakfast, or do you want us to bring it to your room this morning?”

Damn cheerful bitch. What’s good about the morning? I’m here in this cold, plastic and concrete room instead of my nice warm house and you’re chattering up a storm. And no, I don’t want you to send my breakfast down. Last time I did that, that damn mechanical monster you call a delivery robot almost ran over me and it left with part of my breakfast before I could unload it. What ever happened to sending it down with a cute waitress?

Jeff looked at Ms. Cheerful and mumbled, “Yeah, ok. I’ll be there.”

He stood up and let her look at his naked, wrinkled old body while he shuffled toward the closet and dresser. Clean clothes it was. He knew how hard it would be to pick up his favorite ones from the floor and dress in them. He heard her gasp when she saw he was naked and said, “Now, Mr. Jones, what did we say about wandering around naked?”

“The same thing that woman of mine used to say. Told me not to do it. You also told me to think of this place like my home. Well, I dress or don’t dress, like I want in my home and I want to sleep naked.”

It took Jeff almost thirty minutes to dress and shuffle down to the dining area. He stood in the door for a moment looking around to see who was there that he might sit with. He spied a couple of the less obnoxious men and a woman over by the window and went to their table. The woman, what’s-er-name smiled and said, “Good morning Jeff. I hear you and Clara had a good time last night at the concert.”

Huh. Clara huh? He responded, “Yep. Done ‘er up right, we did,” Jeff said wondering what they did. He’d have to get back to the room and check his underwear to see if he managed to get his dingus wet. It still worked part of the time. Maybe that Clara would tell him. He’d have to check with her later.

Quickly finishing breakfast, Jeff stood and headed for the front desk. At least they hadn’t taken his car away from him. He went to the coffee shop every Sunday morning to talk to the few friends he still had left and he didn’t want to be late. He stopped at the desk and simmered while the busybody finished talking on the phone before she asked, “Good morning Jeff. Here for your car keys are you? Where are you going this morning? Beautiful day for a drive to church. Or you could just stay here for services. Now don’t forget, I need to know when you plan to be back too.”

Damn nosy busybody. ‘How the hell do I know when I’ll be back? Whenever I’m done talking, he thought’. He said, “Yeah. Going out to the Blue Cafe. Be back after coffee.”

“Oh, just like last week? Get back about the same time?”

This time he said, “How the hell do I know lady? I’ll be back when the rest of the fellas leave. Got nowhere else to be. Kids just brought me here and dumped me after my house burned.”

“Now don’t be that way Jeff. I’ll just put you down for about 10 and if you’re going to be later let me know. You do have your phone with you don’t you?”

Jeff thought, ‘Yeah, I have that damn piece of shit. I know better than leave it again.’ He patted his shirt pocket where she could see it peeking out and took his keys before he left without saying anything else.

Jeff got into his car and started it. Damn thing began complaining as soon as he did that. Whoever decided to make cars talk should be shot. Damn thing went ding several times and then that bitch in the dashboard said, “Fasten your seat belt before driving.”

He knew better than ignore her. If he didn’t fasten the damn belt, every few seconds she’d ding more, getting louder and louder until he had to do something. That little task done, he drove toward the street, turned and headed for the cafe.

Frickin car thought he was too close to the one in front of him and the whole damn instrument panel flashed orange with a black word ‘brake’ in the center and it applied the frickin brakes for him. Damn it, he saw the damn car and he wasn’t going to hit the frickin thing.

They drove on a few more feet and the bitch hollered “Speed limit 25 miles an hour” and fucking applied the brakes again. Damn this thing. Why wouldn’t those damn firemen let him go into the garage and get his old truck out when the house burned? It didn’t talk back to him or care how close he drove to the car in front of it. He’d had that truck almost as long as he had his wife. They had a good crop and bought it new in 1965.

He finally got to the cafe and saw the day was getting better. Almost all of his friends were there and even a few of the younger guys who weren’t too obnoxious. A cute waitress saw him and detoured across the room to give him a quick hug before she said, “Hi Daddy. You doing ok today?”

Jeff hugged her back, said, “So far sweetie.” After the greeting, he walked to the table with his friends around it. After all the hello’s were said, old Long John (they called him that because his name was John and he was 6’6’ tall) said, “So, Jeff how was your night? That girl of yours said ya was going out last night. You get any from that gal ya took out? Where’d ya go?”

‘Well Crap,’ he thought. ‘I didn’t check to see before I left and I shouldda known someone’d ask.

Jeff smirked and said, “I bet you’d like to know. Let’s just say we got through the night, she didn’t complain, and leave it at that.”

“Yeah, yeah. Struck out huh? Told ya you shouldda took Dirty Gertie instead. So, where’d ya go?”

“Oh, uh, ya know, that place my daughter told me about.”

“Yeah, ok, but where was that? If you had fun me and the missus might wantta go there too.”

“Ok, let me think a minnit.” Jeff looked around and saw a cute waitress a few tables over. He looked troubled, then turned to Long John and said, “Hey, John. You grow things. What’s that flower, you know, has thorns and smells good. There’s a lotta red ones...”

“A Rose?”

“Yeah, that’s it, HEY ROSE!”

The waitress looked up and smiled before she came toward him and said, “Yes, Daddy?”

“Hey, what was that place you said I should take, uh, What’s er Name?”

“Clara?”

“Yeah, I guess ... NO, not who I took, where you said I should take her.”

“Yeah, I know Dad, I mean did you want to know the name of the place you took Clara last night?”

“Well, yeah, if that’s her name.”

“You went to the park Daddy and listened to the bluegrass music. Don’t you remember?”

“Well, ‘course I do. I just didn’t remember the name of the dad gummed park. Long John wants to know.”

“Daddy, it’s just the City Park.”

“Oh, that good enough for ya John?”

Well, just about 9:30 everyone began leaving and a buncha old couples began coming in to eat that there brunch meal. Jeff thought, ‘Why can’t they eat a regular meal like everyone else? They eat breakfast, lunch and dinner most days, why they need something different on Sunday just so they can pay more and serve themselves?’