Time Change - 2

Time Change - 2

Clyde, a tall man, still had some hair and all his teeth, considered himself an ok guy. He shrugged on his old green raincoat, stepped into his rubber boots. Time stretched long and wide ahead of Clyde. Rain poured down while the rest of the country, if news reports were to be believed, was buried in ice and snow. Clyde decided to brave the rain - the sloshing wet streets - just to feel the cold on his face. Definitely not the wet - his faithful, wide and sheltering umbrella kept him dry. Not warm, just dry. The coffee shop was open. There were others that had braved the rain…...Brave? Listening to news reports, the brave ones were driving on icy highways just to get to work. He was walking six blocks to get an Americano.

Clyde checked his watch - not very many people wore watches these days. He’d been wearing one so long, he felt undressed with out it. Four hours. He’d been retired for four hours. Seemed pretty good last week when it was something still in the future. Now? How many Americanos were in his future? He didn’t know that many people outside work. Maybe there wouldn’t be anyone in the coffee shop. He could just have his coffee and go home again. Mariel was on one of her trips. Some quilting thing up island. So what would he go home to? The television? The  news show he watched wouldn’t be on for another few hours. He’d done the dishes. Too damn quiet, he decided to go for coffee.

~~~~~ 

Six hours later, he slammed his black Queen down on the chess board. “Check mate! I got you again.” Clyde hadn’t played chess much since university years. A chess champion on the fraternity team, there had been many hours of study time lost along with a bit of money.

“Closing time in fifteen minutes.” The perky young waitress wandered through the empty tables clearing away crumpled napkins, crumbs and empty coffee cups.

“Closing time! Didn’t we just get started?”

“No, bud, you’ve been beating me for the last two hours. Now, when can we rematch? Did you know a chess club meets here every Wednesday?”

“Nope. This is my first night of retirement and you, Jimmy, are the first person I’ve met outside of work or in the dancing club my wife and I belong to. A chess club, you say? We’d better get in that rematch tomorrow night. Polish up before Wednesday.”

Clyde and Jimmy closed out the coffee shop that night and many more nights to come. When Clyde walked back home, the rain had stopped and the moon rode high in an open sky. His chess board needed a good cleaning. He'd do that tonight while the news guys were on.

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, 

and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

~ Anais Nin