Heavy Lifting

The creek looked different to him after all these years. Construction and flooding made it look man-made almost. He went back home to find most of his possessions missing and his second wife twenty years older. Although it should have worried him, he didn't mind. He was in a great place mentally. Physically however, he could hardly walk. He used a homemade wheelchair he built out of household appliances such as WD-40 and Windex. It got him around just fine.

While feeding his recently aged wife through a straw, he discovered that not only did he feel content with his own life, but he finally felt content with the rest of the world. This was a first. Without saying a word to his nearly vegetative wife, he wheeled himself outside to the bottom of his driveway. "It's beautiful, the whole place! There's such a calmness to everything", he yelled to people walking by. They ignored him, but his smile never faded.

He phoned his older brother, Abel. The excitement was too much. Abel had been asleep for three days and was finally awakened by the ringing. He decided to let the machine pick it up. Abel didn't feel like talking to anyone. He was frightened by most things. School buses, bodies of water, movie rental stores. Abel unplugged his phone and ran down his apartment stairs. He saw a woman he had almost married. He ignored her. She was beautiful. Fully Sicilian and long-legged. Abel liked to admire her from far away on some afternoons when he could be alone.

He ran into his landlord's room and told her that he would be moving out because he had no money and only felt like sleeping the rest of his life. She understood. He packed up his things, robbed some of his neighbors who never locked their doors, and went on the lam for a few days. He found a rain gutter that he could sleep in.