Chapter 4

The whole move took just over two weeks. First of all I had to visit several times to make sure the changes to the house were coming along the way I wanted them to. Of course the bathroom had to be enlarged. I'd grown use to the larger bath area, as well as the multiple shower heads and I was damned certain that I'd have the same thing at this house, too. Then the bedroom had to be enlarged as well. To get this right the second bedroom was incorporated into the one I chose as my own and a walk-in closet was also put in place. Next I use one corner for an indoor spa. While I liked one outside, the weather here was somewhat colder in the evenings and I wanted to be able to enjoy my soaks and still be comfortable. Besides that, I was planning to do a lot of entertaining at the new place and I wanted my guests to be as comfortable as I was. Nothing like a little soak after an evening of sucking cocks with your friends. Once I was sure that all had been fixed up as I'd requested it didn't take long to get all my packing done and make the move. When you live by yourself there's not a lot of stuff to pack and thank goodness I wasn't a pack rat.

There were only a couple of things I intended to take with me that I had no intention of giving up. First was my hardback book collection. I've got a number of First Editions, as well as a couple autographed books that I really wanted to keep. I'd been an avid reader of the books by Clive Cussler for many years and I had everything he'd written. Then there were my comic books. While I no longer bought any I still had a collection that went back at least 50 years and I've been offered quite a sum of money if I ever decided I wanted to sell them. That thought remained in the back of my mind to this day and it was becoming quite clear to me that I'd eventually sell them, but at my price! There was also my DVD collection. I'd had a ton of VHS tapes for many years and it had taken me quite some time to either have them coverted to DVDs or to find them on DVD myself. I'd gotten a ton of positive feedbacks on ebay from all the purchasing I'd done there over the last 10 years or so.

There were a few pictures I was sure to take with me, as well. Of course I took the ones of my parents and myself, but there wasn't much more than those. I never liked to have my picture taken and as a result I think there were only about 3 of me in the whole house, if you include my graduation picture from college all those many years ago.

I got all my things in the back of the rental van and walked out of the house I'd spent a great deal of my life in. I locked the door and walked to the van, turning once to look back.

"Bye, old girl," I said to no one in particular.

I then got in the van and made the long drive to the new house I'd call home.

I was sitting in the living room when I heard the knock on the front door. Getting up and turning down the volume on the TV, I went to the door to see who it was, hoping it might be Ed.

It wasn't.

Instead, when I opened the door there was a black gentleman standing there, probably around my age, in shorts and a blaring red shirt.

"I wanted to be the first to welcome you to the neighborhood," he said. Then he introduced himself.

"I'm Eugene," he told me. "Eugene Wills."

I took the hand he extended and we 'officially' welcomed each other.

"Don't just stand there," I told him. "Come on in and sit for a bit."

We sat in front of the TV and I politely turned it off so we could chat and get to know each other.

"I didn't want to come over the first day," Eugene told me. "I wanted to let you get use to the new place first."

"I appreciate that, Eugene."

"Please, call me Gene. Everyone does. I was only Eugene to my wife, and then only when she was mad at me."

We both laughed and for the first time I really felt comfortable in this new environment.

"How is your wife?" I asked. "Will she be joining us?"

The silence was deafening, and I knew right away that it was a mistake. I tried to apologize, but he waved it off.

"Lost Lois 4 months ago," he told me. "We were planning on coming out here together, but she was hit by a drunk driver."

"I'm so sorry," I told him.

"Thanks. She didn't know what hit her, and I'm mighty thankful for that. The police told me that she may not have even known it happened, it was just that quick. The driver was killed, too." I saw the tears beginning to well up in his eyes but he quickly brushed them away. "We were together 54 years and I still miss her terribly." He pulled a hankerchief out of his back pocket and dabbed his eyes, then folded it up and placed it back in the pocket.

Since I'd never been married I didn't know what to do next so I just threw caution to the wind and remained silent, allowing him to compose himself and once he was ready I knew he'd continue. Probably the best decision I'd made since moving in.

"I'm sorry," he told me. "I try not to let it bother me, but when you've spent that much time with someone, it still smarts."

"I wouldn't know," I admited. "I've never been married."

"You don't know what you missed," he said. "I loved her more than anything else. We never had any children though, so we were able to do things we always wanted to do once I retired. We traveled, we joined clubs," and for some reason he accented the 'clubs' part, "and we ejoyed ourselves."