Henry

[By no means am I trying to be overbearing, egotistical, etc. by posting 2 stories this week. I just couldn't decide between the two and well, since I got good reactions on both, I figured why not share both (and get more feedback on them). Extreme mea culpa if I'm overstepping my bounds for my no means do I think every bit of my writing is golden.]


Henry sits on the sofa in his living room in small town New Jersey. It’s the split level of the split level house. He slips a little on the plastic slipcover on his plush pale blue couch. Those were his wife’s Geri’s idea – it’ll preserve the furniture.
Will it outlast him? After all, he’s 85 and well, how much longer was she planning for them to be around. No matter. “If it makes her happy, it’s all good.” he thinks while tightening his tie and moving his shoes along the blue shag carpet.
“Did you say something Geri?” Was that Renee? Here he was in his castle, pictures of his girls lining the walls. The girls that will never give him grandchildren, but he made his peace with that.
“Geri, is that you calling? Renee, was that you?”
He went into the kitchen and poured a glass of water from the pitcher in the refrigerator.
“I’ll bring this to up to Renee. She always needs water with her medication. Gosh, so many pills to take, especially after this last stint in rehab. But a father always has to care for his daughter, even when she’s middle-aged and living back home again with her parents.”
He walked up the stairs to the second “level”. He peeked into Renee’s room, the same one as she had when she was a teen, and saw she was asleep.
“Maybe Geri will want this,” he thought and softly went over to their bedroom. He didn’t know yet that she’d cheated on him all those years ago with some many others.
“Geri, I brought you some water. You know I have to go out now. It’s my night to read to the sick kids at the hospital. I’ll be stopping at the Lodge on the way home after I drop some stuff off at the Goodwill. You’ll be OK, right? Enough for me to leave for a bit?”
Geri opened her eyes, nodded, and blew him a kiss.

Larry limped into the hospital waiting area complaining about his ankle. He made his way to the front desk and asked to see a doctor. Waves of pain shot down his leg.
“I really need to see someone, it hurts so bad. I know, I’ll have to wait my turn. But it really hurts. OK, I’ll be over there.”
He limped over to a seat against the wall next to an open door. He winced in pain, grimaced, and began to play the role of the martyr – one he was especially good at. On the other side of the door sat Henry reading to a group of sick kids, their shorn heads a clear sign of chemotherapy. They were a bit raucous and this drove Larry nuts and intensified the pain. He stuck his head around the open threshold and said, “Can you be a little quieter? I’m in so much pain.”
Henry nodded and seemed to assuage Larry. Twenty seconds later, Larry popped his head out again. “Have you gotten louder? What kind of zoo is there in there? I thought you said you’d be quieter.”
Henry smiled, apologized, and then began to whisper his story to the kids. But Larry’s pain just continued to get worse. The slightest noise set seemed to set him off. He writhed in agony. He peered around the corner again and said, “Damn it! You damn rotten kids!” probably unaware of what he had said.
Henry got up to talk to this little bald head that kept appearing and disappearing at the door and now had insulted the kids. Calmly he said, “Now, look here, sir. These are very sick kids. Can’t you just understand for a bit?”
Wincing in pain, Larry spat out, “Damn you and them! Who do you think you are?”
Henry calmly answered, “I’m Henry Epstein. Who are you?”
Larry snorted, “Oh, you’re the famous yokel whose wife slept with half the married men in this small town in the 50s.” What Larry didn’t know was that the entire town had a quiet agreement to keep this secret from Henry for more than 50 years. Larry, as a newcomer, had unintentionally broken that silent covenant.