CHANGE OF LIFE - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Willard came home as soon as his shift was over. He couldn’t wait to get out of his dress uniform. It burned him that those two guys were promoted and that he had been passed over. He went up to the bedroom and got out of his uniform, leaving it on the floor as usual. As he was dressing in casual clothes, he noticed that the bed had not been made.

“What the heck is going on here?”  

“DOLORES!”

There was no answer. He went downstairs and into the kitchen-dining room. His breakfast dishes were still on the table. The frying pan was still on the stove.

“What is that fat sow up to?  Where is she?” 

He went back to the bedroom and stumbled over his dress uniform on the floor. He looked into the closet. Her clothes seemed to be there. Her pocketbook was missing. She always left it on the left side of the dresser unless she was going out. Looking at the dresser he saw her engagement ring. She never took that off except when she was scrubbing or doing something where it might catch.

“What are the possibilities?  Maybe she went shopping in Little Rock with a friend and they hadn’t come home yet. What friend?  I don’t think she has any friends who would take her shopping. Maybe she’s been kidnapped. Who would want to kidnap her?  I know that she’s been going out walking. Other policemen have mentioned seeing her. They asked if she is trying to lose weight. She could have been hit by a car or passed out from overexertion?  I don’t know whether to worry or be angry.”

He called the desk at the police station.

“Jim, this is Willard. When I came home today Dolores wasn’t here. The dishes haven’t been washed, the bed hasn’t been made. That isn’t like her at all. I know it is too soon to file a missing person report, but I just wondered if there have been any accident reports or muggings that had a victim fitting her description.”

“No, this has been a quiet day and evening – no accidents or any other activity. If I hear anything going, I’ll let you know.”

He went out to the kitchen and stared at the dirty dishes and greasy frying pan. He had never washed dishes, and didn’t know where to begin. He shrugged his shoulders and stomped out of the house. He got into his car and drove into town to the Acropolis Café. Demetrius Papadopolous was the proprietor and cook. He had the best food in town - arguably the best food in the state.

“Hey, Willard, good to see you, but why are you coming to my establishment?  Did someone complain about my food?  Maybe it was that college boy that I wouldn’t let smoke in here. That’s the law I was told. Or maybe it was that prostitute who kept nursing one cup of coffee for half an hour. She sat on a stool at the counter with her skirt hiked up showing ten yards of leg. I told her this wasn’t going to be a place she could pick up customers.”

“Nothing like that, Demetrius. I just want one of your delicious gyros, and a cup of coffee. I promise not to smoke a cigarette, or nurse my coffee for half an hour.”

“I would let you smoke a whole pack of cigarettes, and nurse your coffee for an hour, old friend. Is Dolores sick?”

“I don’t know. She wasn’t at the house when I got home. She didn’t leave a note saying where she was going, or when she would be back. I don’t know whether to be worried or angry.”

“Gee, I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll have a gyro fixed in no time. I promise it will take your mind off all things of this earth. You’ll think it came from the gods’ own dining hall on Mount Olympus!  Meanwhile, here is a fresh cup of coffee.”

It had been seventeen years since he smoked his last cigarette, but he sure wished that he had a pack of them to smoke right now.  The coffee was the best cup he had had in years. The gyro was every bit as good as Demetrius had promised. After he finished, he reluctantly went outside to his car. The last thing on earth that he wanted to do was to go back to the house, and deal with the problem of its emptiness.  Maybe he should be glad that Dolores was gone, but he wasn’t glad. Even now, as he drove back to the house, he was hoping that she would be there, waiting for him.

He entered the house, went upstairs and checked every room, looking for some clue to the whereabouts of Dolores. He picked up his dress uniform and decided to take it to the dry cleaner the next day. While he was at it, he looked for everything he would need to wear tomorrow. He laid them all on a chair in the bedroom.

Downstairs, he picked up the dirty dishes from the table, and put them in the sink. He was standing at the sink trying to figure out what he needed to do to wash the dirty dishes and the frying pan. The phone rang.

A female voice asked, “Is Mrs. Dolores O’Reilly there?”

“No, she isn’t. Who is this?  Do you know where she is?”

“Sergeant O’Reilly, this is Mildred Tolefree from the Union Savings Bank. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this – Your wife came into the bank this morning, carrying a suitcase. She withdrew all of the money from one of the savings accounts. Then she made the maximum loan on your credit card. Altogether, she received a little more than four thousand dollars.”

“What savings account are you talking about?”

“About five years ago she opened a savings account that she said was going to be for a Caribbean cruise on your twenty-fifth anniversary. When she withdrew all that money today I asked her if you two were going on your cruise. She said that you didn’t want to go on a cruise. I asked her if she was going on the cruise alone. She said, ‘I guess you could say that.’”

“Thank you. I appreciate you calling me, Miss Tolefree.”

He sat there stunned. He had to talk to someone. He hadn’t talked to his sister in over five years. Right now she seemed like the only one he knew that he could talk to about this. Dolores kept an address book. If he could find it, he was sure Beverly’s phone number and address would be in it. The address book was in a drawer of the desk in the spare room.

That room was supposed to be for a child. After Dolores had several miscarriages, the doctor recommended that they stop trying to have children. Dolores jumped right on that. That was the end of trying to have a baby. He thought they should have kept trying. Dolores said that to keep trying might endanger her life. He was endangering his own life every time that he went out on patrol. She didn’t tell him to stop endangering his life!  Then she suggested that they adopt a child. That was an easy way out for her – adopt somebody else’s child.

Downstairs he sank into his recliner and pulled the phone close to him. Reading from the address book, he punched in the numbers of his sister’s phone.

“Beverly, this is Willard.”

“Willard, I haven’t heard from you in at least five years, not even a Christmas card. Here you are calling me at ten o’clock at night.”

“I thought that it was just nine.”

“It is an hour later in Boston than it is in Arkansas. So why are you calling me at this hour?”

“Beverly, I needed to talk to someone. You are the only one that I can talk to about this. Dolores has left me.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. She wasn’t here when I got home. Later this evening a teller at the bank told me that Dolores came into the bank, carrying a suitcase and withdrew four thousand dollars. I found her engagement ring on the dresser in our bedroom.”

“What was the savings account for – home repairs, medical expenses?”

“I didn’t even know we had it. The teller said that she opened it five years ago to save for a Caribbean cruise for our twenty-fifth anniversary. When she mentioned a Caribbean cruise earlier this year, I told her it was a dumb idea. The teller asked her if she was withdrawing the money because we were going on the cruise. She told her that I didn’t want to go on a cruise. The teller asked if she was going alone. She said ‘Something like that.’”

“When was your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary”

“I think that it was yesterday. I’m not sure.”

“What did you do to celebrate your anniversary?”

“Nothing. I came home, ate my supper, read the newspaper, watched some television, and went on up to be“Nothing. Did I hear you say nothing?  No card, no candy, no flowers?”

“No.”

“Did you even say ‘Happy Anniversary’?”

“No.”

“Did she fix a special meal and put on her nicest clothes for that meal?”

“I guess so. I didn’t pay attention.”

“Then it is not surprising to me that she left you. What surprises me is that she hung around so long.”

“What gets me is how she could have saved almost three thousand dollars in five years. She must have been stealing it from me some way. She doesn’t have a job.”

“That would only be fifty dollars a month. How much allowance do you give her for personal expenses?”

“None. She uses my credit card at the grocery store, the beauty parlor, and if she buys shoes or clothes.”

“Does she have a car to use?”

“She uses mine on my days off if I am not going somewhere.”

“How often do you take her out for dinner, for a movie, or to socialize with other people?”

“Never. We aren’t teenagers you know.”

“When was the last time you told her that you love her?”

“For Pete sake. I’m nearly fifty years old and she is a fat, middle-aged sow.“

“Willard, you didn’t lose a wife, you lost an unpaid domestic servant. She didn’t steal money from you. She collected some unpaid wages.”

“I was hoping to get some helpful advice and sympathy from you. You are all the family that I have.”

“I’m the only family that you have?  Wonder why I haven’t heard from you in nearly five years. I’ll give you this advice. If you get a second chance with Dolores and don’t want to lose her again, learn to say, ‘I love you.’ and ‘Thank you.’ and ‘You certainly are pretty.’  Good night, Wiilard”

Willard sat there staring at the phone. He had never felt so alone. He had turned to Beverly and she had just ridiculed him. What she was saying was true. He realized that Dolores was far more important to him than an unpaid domestic servant. She was his closest and most loyal friend. She always knew how he was feeling. Like being passed over for promotion. She knew right away how he was feeling. He had talked mean to her for so long. How or why did it start?  Feeling alone now made him realize how much she had meant to him.