"Do you remember what it's like being in school?" Burt asked Polly as they were getting on the bus for their trip. Polly shrugged as Carol and Boris followed them on.
"I have memories of parts of school, but nothing I like remembering, mostly embarrassing things," Polly said, "It's kind of unfair. You live a full life, you have great accomplishments, child rearing, marriage, whatever, and then the only things you remember are the bad things. The embarrassments and failings are what stick with you." "You know what sucks even worse?" Boris asked, "Not being able to sit down. Move it, Polly." Polly took her seat with Burt as Boris and Carol continued by them and headed to the back of the bus, Larry right behind them, to sit down for the trip to the local elementary school. Boris sighed as he laid his head on Carols' shoulder and shut his eyes. "I don't see why I gotta go, just because everyone else is," Boris said, "It's not like I've got anyone to see there." "You don't have grandkids?" Larry asked, and Boris furrowed his brow and ignored him. "I'm excited," Carol said, shrugging, "It's nice to get out of the home once in a while. I just hope this isn't a cover for driving us to the middle of nowhere and leaving us there. They do that you know." "They do not," Burt said, looking over his seat at them. "Sure they do," Boris replied, eyes still shut, "If you're too much of a hassle, they drive you to the middle of nowhere and leave you there. You think they get paid enough to take care of people? Come on. This a conspiracy of massive proportions that goes all the way to the top, Burt." "It's true, it happened to Delores," Carol said. The bus started moving as everyone settled in for the ride. Carol looked at Boris as he sat upright and stretched best he could, yawning. He straightened his cap and blinked a few times before looking out the back window. "I've got a granddaughter I can't wait to see there," Larry said, "Family comes to visit once a week anyway, but it's always nice having extra time to see her." "I'm going to see my granddaughter too," Burt said, "She's the cutest thing. Smart as a whip too." Carol and Boris didn't say a thing as the bus drove. They just sat, each looking out a separate window. When the bus finally rolled up to the front of the school about 25 minutes later, Boris had dozed off yet again. The sharp stop when the brakes hit jarred him awake, and he groggily opened his eyes to see an elementary school out his window, with tons of kids walking inside. He then noticed one girl struggling with locking her bike up. "Chrissy?" he mumbled, but before he could be sure, she had finished and had gone running off into the school, not wanting to be late. As the seniors started to pile off the bus, Boris passed Whittle by the doors on the way out and touched her arm. "Hey," he said, "Uh, what do you do if you don't have anyone to visit?" he asked. "You have nobody?" "I have no grandchildren, no," Boris said softly, "My daughter....was never able to have children." "Well, just take it easy I guess. I won't be around to chat, I'm going to have to helping everyone else, helping other nurses, so, just try and stay out of trouble," Whittle said. "Yeah, like that'll happen," Boris said, making her smirk as she left him to go assist someone with a wheelchair. Boris sighed, dug his hands into his pants pockets and started walking off towards the front of the school when he heard Carol coming up from behind him. "So," she asked, pulling her purse up on her shoulder, "Want to harass some kids by insisting we're their grandparents and crying, asking why they never come to visit?" Boris smirked, "Fun as that may be, I think I'll spend the day sitting on a bench and reading a book." "You brought a book to a school?" Carol asked, scoffing, "You nerd." "I know, books have no place in school, but I needed something to do," Boris said, "Don't you have someone to visit?" "None of my family lives close by," Carol said as they entered the main school hall, kids running by them each way to get to their classroom, "They moved away a few years ago, so they never come see me now. They call every now and then, usually just my sister, but that's neither here nor there." "That's screwed up," Boris said as they sat on a bench in the school hall and he pulled his book out from his coat pocket, "You give everything to a family and they just leave you somewhere, as if you never did anything for them." "Well, the point of having a family isn't hoping they'll take care of you later on. You don't have children in hopes to gain something in return, Boris. You do it because you want to, because you want to raise a child and teach them right and wrong and give them a good life, possibly a better life than you were ever given." "I know why people have children," Boris said grimly, looking into his book, now trying to ignore her. "...sorry," Carol said quietly, standing up, "I'll just...I'm just going to go to the cafeteria. Maybe they have snack machines." With Carol gone, Boris could finally enjoy his solitude. The students were in classrooms and everything was fine now. He relaxed, leaned back against the wall and crossed his legs, happily lost in his book. Until a door down the hall opened and he saw a teacher take a student out of the classroom and stand with them in the hall, talking to them quietly. Scolding them, perhaps? The student was crying. Actually, the student was... "Chrissy?" Boris asked, noticing her now. It was in fact Chrissy, and it had been her in the front having trouble with her bike lock. He waited until the teacher was done, and left Chrissy in the hall by herself until he saw Chrissy standing there, sniffling and wiping her nose. Boris whistled, and got her attention. She spun around, spotting him and cautiously approaching him. "Boris?" she asked. "Hey," he replied, "What's going on?" "Oh..." Chrissy said as Boris patted the spot next to him on the bench and she sat down there, "I...there's this girl in class and she sits behind me, and she put gum in my hair. I got in trouble for yelling at her and 'causing a scene'." "What?" Boris asked, "That's ridiculous. You stand up for yourself and you're labeled as the problem?" "Hey," Carol said, "I come bearing frozen yogurt." "The cafeteria had frozen yogurt?" Boris asked, "Jeez, school has changed a lot since I was there." "No, idiot, I went down the street," she said and handed him a cup, which he took and then after a second gave to Chrissy, who happily took it. Carol took her seat on the other side of Chrissy and started eating, asking, "So what's going on here?" "This is Chrissy, she got in trouble for yelling at a girl for putting gum in her hair," Boris said. "She does this sort of stuff to me all the time!" Chrissy said, clearly and understandably annoyed, "And she never gets in trouble because her parents are like, the ones who host all the bake sales and donate money to the school and stuff. It's so unfair. She's untouchable." "She's like a tiny mob boss," Carol said, "But there has to be something you can do to counteract this. I mean, she should be being punished for this behavior. She's doing wrong. That has to count for something, right?" "Power means you can't get held accountable," Boris said, "Look at government." "Why are people so mean to one another? It's not that hard to be nice. I do it. It isn't tough," Chrissy asked, spooning more frozen yogurt into her mouth. "Because...people..." Boris started. "Suck," Carol finished for him, surprising him, "I don't want to be that negative, but sweetheart, people are so unreliable, and they're cruel and they're selfish but that doesn't mean you should give up on them completely. Sometimes certain people can surprise you, like our friend Boris here," she said, putting her hand on his knee and smiling, "On the outside, he's a curmudgeon, a crank, an absolute bummer-" "Okay, this might be helping her, but it's hurting me," Boris interjected, making Chrissy laugh. "But," Carol continued, "He's really decent if you get to know him and he likes you. Sadly, you're not at the age where you no longer have to rely on relationships and friendships to get you through life. When you're this old, being lonely can be a virtue. You can want it, and it won't be weird because it's almost what's expected of you. 'Oh, they're old, they want to be alone'. But a kid wanting to be alone? Somehow that's strange and unheard of. So this girl's a problem, but it doesn't mean everyone will be. Sure a good majority of them will be, but not all of them, and those are the ones you want to work on being friends with." "Wow," Boris said, "That was lovely." "But how do you know which ones are worth it?" Chrissy asked. "Well, that's the problem, you won't," Boris said, "But it doesn't mean it's not worth trying to figure out anyway. And this is coming from a cranky bummer curmudgeon, so you know it's gotta be true. Now if I were you, I'd keep making a big deal out of things that bother you, because being quiet is only being complicit in their behavior. If nobody ever calls them out, then their behavior becomes acceptable, because they feel they'll never be told it isn't. Even if she's never punished for it, at least there's one person telling them that hey, this isn't the right way to be a person, knock it off." "Never stop defending yourself," Carol said, and Chrissy nodded, finishing the frozen yogurt and sucking on the spoon, "You have to defend yourself, sweetheart, because more often than not, you're the only one who will." "But you just said that some people-" "I realize it sounds contradictory, but while those people will care and want to help, in the end, you really do need to defend yourself," Boris said, "Trust me, the people you really do love may not be able to stay forever." Carol glanced at him, noting the hint of sadness in his voice, and she felt so bad. Just then, the teacher came out and looked for Chrissy. When she spotted her, she waved her hand and Chrissy stood up and looked at Boris and Carol. "Thanks guys," Chrissy said, "...you guys are my friends, right?" "Of course we are," Carol said. "For sure," Boris added, the both of them smiling. Chrissy hugged them both, then headed on back to her classroom. Carol looked at Boris who returned to reading his book while she ate the rest of her frozen yogurt and looked around the hall they were seated in. "God, look at all the art these kids put up," Carol said, "Kids are so full of emotions and creativity, and we just crush it out of them more and more as they get older until they're nothing but jaded, cynical copies of adults...Boris?" "Hmmm?" "...if you ever want to talk about your family, I'm here." "I know." Carol looked at her shoes and didn't know what else to say, until he put his arm around her and pulled her close, making her smile. It was good to have friends, especially at their age. By the time afternoon rolled around, and everyone was making their way back towards the bus, Boris was ready to go home and take a long nap. As they stood in front of the bus, waiting to get on, all the school kids passing them by, Boris couldn't help but feel like he'd done something good today. "You want to play a game when we get back?" Carol asked, "We could play cards." "Poker?" "I got some money I could afford to lose," Carol said. Just then, a girl ran past them, sobbing and got into a car parked near the bus. Boris and Carol glanced at one another before shrugging, and then they heard the sound of a bike being taken off the rack behind them. They turned to find Chrissy getting her bike chain off and climbing on. "What was that all about?" Boris asked. "I told her she could make my hair ugly, but her personality is even uglier," Chrissy said, smiling as she started to peddle. "Our little girl's all grown up," Boris said, hugging Carol and she looked at him. "The kid's gonna be alright," she added. *** It had been a nice day, and now it was time for a nice evening. Since getting back to the home, Carol, Boris, Burt, Larry and Polly had played a few hands of poker and a few other card games, watched a movie and had dinner, and now it was time for a long sleep. As Boris buttoned up his pajama shirt, he felt like he'd really made a difference today. Just then, someone knocked on his door. "Come in," Boris said as Whittle entered. "Hey," she said, "Um...you have a visitor." "A visitor? It's almost 8 at night," Boris said, "Who is it?" "It's a girl," Whittle said, and Boris smiled. "It's Chrissy, she probably came to talk about today. Alright, I'll be right out," Boris said. He and Whittle exited the room and walked down the hall. When they reached the main visiting room, Boris saw it wasn't Chrissy, it was another girl. A woman, actually, in an advanced wheelchair. Every cell in Boris' body went cold, and he was frozen where he stood. After Whittle nudged him, he nodded and approached the table, seating himself across from her. "Uh...hi," Boris said, clearing his throat, "It's uh...it's funny seeing you here." "Hi dad," she replied.
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Golden Years follows the exploits of a bunch of old people in a retirement home as they try to have fun, relax or come to terms with the soon to be end of their lives. Archives
April 2024
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