This is what my life has come to. Playing monopoly on the back porch, the sun’s heat bearing hard upon my back.
There’s nothing really wrong with monopoly; it’s very popular amongst boring people. But I’m not a boring person. Despite my advanced age f 59- I know, I’m practically a fossil- I still have wanderlust though.
My wife, Cornelia enjoys sitting on the back porch, on a scorching summer afternoon, and kicking my ass at Monopoly. She smiles as she moves her silver thimble and buys “Boardwalk”. Of course she gets one of the best properties.
A flash of triumph lights up her ever-yellowing eyes. This is a thrill now for her now? She isn’t the Cornelia I married almost forty years ago.
We used to speak of the adventures we would have in Fiji, Peru and Russia. Then we had kids. After they were born, we spoke of adventures in more demure places, places we would visit after they were grown, Versailles, Rome, and Brussels. Then the kids all went to college- four college tuitions doesn’t exactly leave spare change for European getaways.
Cornelia squeals and pokes me, waking me up from my daydream. “Tony! You owe me money. You landed right on Boardwalk!”
I fork over a handful of bills in pastel colors- the same kind of colors we would have used if we had even gotten to partake in our daydreamed adventures.
“Don’t be sore, there’s always time for a comeback”
I roll my eyes. That’s classic Cornelia. Always helpful, sweet and kind, always there to pick you up if you ever were to fall. I gaze around the backyard; no more swing sets, no kids laughing, and no cocktail parties. No, none of that anymore. That wasn’t Cornelia. She wants to “relax” now.
I grunt in acknowledgement, she titters and rolls the dice.
The sun glints ghastly rays of silver into my eyes. I can already feel my skin puckering into sunburn. These games always do run long, now that the kids and our dreams are almost gone.
I have a sudden spark, a sudden idea, a sudden second chance “Cornelia, what do you think about going to the Grand Canyon?”
Cornelia looks at me, and then, back at the game board.
“You landed in Jail”
I look, and to my dismay, she’s correct. My little silver top hat has landed in “Jail”, and I’m fresh out of “get out of jail free” cards.
“Fresh Out” was printed in Harvest Time, No. 5 of Inwood Indiana. Pick up the paperback from Prolific Press; the stories and poems published online are free to read here.
Get the paperback