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Saturday, April 20, 2019

S is For ... WEP_RIF



(583 Words)




RIF


It sounded like a term in music.  

"Let me play you a RIF  from my latest song."

 But there was nothing musical in losing your job to being Reduced in Force.  

 Such an impersonal term.  

 Large corporations liked their bloodless terms when slashing their employees’ wrists.



Alice sat down wearily on the couch on which she could almost see Troop curled up waiting to be hugged.   

Troop. 


Why couldn’t dogs live as long as parrots?


Maybe hearts so filled with love burst all too quickly?   

In that case, Frank would live forever.  

 May his new trophy wife leave him as empty as he left her those long years ago. 


On the coffee table she carefully set down her jewelry box 

which held only the jewels of memories, some bitter sweet, others just bitter. 


Alice made sure not to nudge her champagne glass though it was only filled with Ginger Ale.   

What had been Frank’s mocking refrain?  

 ‘Alice gets in too much trouble sober to dare being drunk.’


Alice opened the jewelry box and took out the bottle chock-full of sleeping pills.  

 She’d endured three sleepless months after Frank left to hoard enough to ensure the Big Sleep as Bogie called it.


Then, on the way home from the pharmacy that third month, she’d seen Troop, wet, lost, and bedraggled on the side of the road.


Who was cruel enough to abandon a Golden Retriever?


Troop helped fill the void left by Frank’s desertion and Susan’s death.  

 Suze, her wry wit had brightened all her days since grade school up to her brave, futile battle with cancer.


Alice pulled Troop’s collar from the jewelry box, followed by the baggie filled with his golden hair taken after he had died in her arms at the Vet’s.   

She opened the plastic bag and felt the soft hairs.   

She blinked back the hot tears.


She swallowed a few pills, washing them down with a sip of Ginger Ale.


Next, she pulled out the folded divorce papers and tossed them in disgust on the carpet. 



The postcards and letters from Suze Alice gently placed beside Troop’s collar and baggie of hairs.   

She opened her eyes wide to clear them so she could re-read every one  …


Although she long ago memorized them all.


More pills, more sips of Ginger Ale.


She could hear Suze in her head as she always did when she knew she was making a mistake.


‘Ali, there is still a future for you.  All you have to do is go out there and make it yours.’


Alice sighed, 

“Maybe that was true when we were younger, Suze.   

But you’re long dead, and I’m dead meat.  Too young for Social Security and too old to get another job for which I’m trained.”


Her shoulders slumped, “I am so weary of empty words and emptier people, sick of unseeing eyes.  I long for this endless sleep.”


Alice swallowed the rest of the pills, washing them down with the remainder of the Ginger Ale.   

She swung her legs up on the couch. Laying her head on Troop’s favorite pillow, she closed her heavy eyes, putting the now empty jewelry box on her chest.


It was getting harder to breathe.   

A weary peace settled on her like a heavy blanket.   

She almost felt the box slip from her relaxing fingers, dimly heard it thud hollowly to the carpet.


Darkness enveloped her, and for the first time in years, Alice welcomed it.


A cold nose suddenly nudged her limp fingers.  Though closed, her eyes saw an old friend.


‘Oh, Troop, you waited for me.’


 

“Today is only one day
in all the days that will ever be. 
But what will happen 
in all the other days that ever come 
can depend on what you do today." 

-Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls

39 comments:

  1. Ooooh Roland. Isn't this a bittersweet tale? '...the jewels of memories...' So much interwoven through this -- love of the faithful and the perhaps unfaithful.

    Thanks for this late entry for WEP. I'd opened the sign up to fix a few things, so you scraped through under the wire.

    Happy Easter!

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    1. Sometimes the Force is with me. :-) This tale is personal. Have a peaceful Easter.

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  2. I am so glad Troop waited - and hope he takes her to Suze.

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    1. In my mind, Troop does just that. Thanks so much for liking my tale. :-)

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  3. Oh wow. This was so sad, but so good. Well done!

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    1. Thank you for that. My tale was birthed by a real event and sadder because of it. Happy Easter!

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  4. This excellent piece was worth waiting for - and worth the tears I'm shedding for the characters and for you. Blessings from one Roland to another.

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    1. Happy Easter from one Roland to another. :-) I am so happy you enjoyed my entry.

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  5. Stories about pets always bring back memories of pets lost in the past. I am trying to determine what you mean in some of the comments. Did this happen to someone you know? The story itself tugs at the heartstrings.

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    1. Yes, sadly it happened to someone I know. :-( Have a healing Easter. :-)

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  6. Your writing always moves me. So beautiful and so sad. The jewel box of memories, in the end the only one worth having.

    Please take a look at this link and see if you would like to be part of this project:
    http://www.robinbarratt.co.uk/contribute/

    Thank you, as always, for an excellent read. And my best wishes for a very happy and blessed Easter to you and yours.

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    1. It means a lot that you liked my prose. I will follow your link. I always like to be part of a good project. But I am on call today as a rare blood courier. Happiest of Easters to you. :-)

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  7. Hi Roland - so sad ... and I'm sure so true for some people - desperate to be so apparently abandoned, unfulfilled ... the faithful friend now gone ... but who will be there on the other side.

    Take care and with many thoughts - so good to see your entry - Reduced in Force ... a powerful title. Be peaceful - Hilary

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    1. The world is peopled with poor souls living lives of quiet desperation as Henry David Thoreau put it. May your Easter and the following days be filled with only happy surprises, Hilary!

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  8. Poor, poor Alice. I kind-of understand why she did what she did. Sometimes, it seems that death is the only way out. I'm sorry if this story was inspired by a personal tragedy. I hope that writing it, expressing your pain, channeling your emotions, helped you, at least a little.

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    1. William Faulkner said he never knew what he thought of something until he wrote of it. Writing does help me sort out my feelings. May Easter bring you peace. :-)

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  9. As always, a well written story. Sad and fraught with regret. It makes me want to hug your character and tell her that hings will work out. Just hang on a little while longer.
    Nancy

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    1. There are always possibilities. It is always wise to sleep on any drastic action ... but not with sleeping pills. Her memory of Suze told her that. We sometimes believe our despair when we should remember the sun also rises. Have a blessed Easter, Nancy! :-)

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  10. It’s a beautiful piece. Made my morning. Dixie Jo Jarchow

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    1. Thank you so much for that, Dixie. Happy Easter! :-)

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  11. My heart is breaking! Beautifully written and paced. I want to give her some hope!!
    Soulless companies have so much to answer for. I hope all will be well.

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    1. Thank you, Jemi. People can take everything from us but Hope. We have to give that up ourselves. As my best friend, Sandra, often told me: a crisis is nothing but a problem; and to every problem there is a solution -- perhaps not a perfect solution but something to keep us keeping on. Have a Happy Easter. :-)

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  12. Wow. You made me cry. The job situation out there is hell for anyone who is past middle aged, or even in middle age, so I totally get the dilemma she's faced with in that way - and then to have lost her closest friends, that's really tough. I don't like her solution, but I know that possibility is the only one that people see sometimes - we have a huge problem with depression and suicide in our country.
    I guess this is my long-winded way of saying - good writing, well done. You brought me into the story and kept me in it.
    Happy Easter, Roland!

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    1. I wanted to touch your heart, Tyrean, but not make you cry! Yes, age discrimination and business callousness are all too common these days. :-(

      Thank you for the nice words on my small fiction which was birthed by an all too real incident, Roland

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  13. Such a sad story... to be that alone is hard for me to imagine, with all my family and people I love. If I had none of them? It could look that way.

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    1. America is increasingly becoming an isolated society with scattered islands of human despair and loneliness. It could happen ... because it did. :-(

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  14. You've taken a sad truth and woven it into an understandable story. Excellent work.

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  15. So heartbreaking. I'm rather certain that my life will end something like this, and I hope that my Lafayette and Trinity will be waiting for me when I get there. To other people they were "just cats" but to me they were everything.
    My life has been difficult due to a myriad of psychological and physical issues, and people don't really understand or like me. Much of the time I just wish it could be over.

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    1. There are always possibilities, the Real Cie.

      Many people are so self-focused, they truly do not see those around them.

      My cat, Gypsy, meant the world to me. I even included her in several of my novels. When she died in my arms, it was like a part of my heart died with her.

      I wrote a tribute to her on my blog: http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2011/04/g-is-for-gypsyonly-happy-wordspromise.html

      The only constant to Life besides Change is it never turns out like we think it will. Why should Death be any different?

      So best stick with the Devil (Life) that we know, right?

      It is difficult not to be understood, to be disliked for things beyond our control. When our own body becomes an adversary, it is exceedingly hard.

      My mother once told me that I could let Life's punches build character in me or make me one.

      It has turned out to be a little bit of both I'm afraid. :-)

      I do not know where you are in Life, so I will spare you the abrasive cliches that many dole out.

      I do know that Life has its seasons, and every season has its beginning, middle, and end. In Seattle, I bet it seems the rain will never end. In Montana, it must seem it will never be spring or warm. But the rains stops, the spring comes.

      No matter your winter, spring will come.

      FIREFOX, a Clint Eastwood movie, was so depressing that I was tempted to turn it off. I am glad I did not. The ending was worth the discomfort of the first two acts.

      Your third act is approaching, the Real Cie. Hang around to see if your FIREFOX will pick up in the months to come.

      I will be thinking of you and pulling for you to have one hell of a third act. Roland

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  16. A wonderful and sad story.
    Thank you for sharing this, Roland.

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  17. This is so sad. It's so true though.

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    1. Sadly, it is. Thanks for being compassionate and commenting. :-)

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  18. Powerful and heartbreaking. I wish there was more help for people struggling with depression and other mental and emotional traumas, and a total removal of any stigmas about seeking that help. We lose enough people to war, disease, and accidents. I'm glad there was at least the comfort of the dog, in the after.

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    1. Callous Big Business doesn't help either. :-( I refuse to leave my characters without aid of some sort in my stories.

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  19. Ah, Roland, that is what I hope will happen, seventeen noses welcoming me to the other side. Lovely piece, well done.

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    1. I don't have as many noses waiting for me, but I hope they play well together! :-)

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  20. Well written! I like the ending where she is reunited with her dog...

    Ronel visiting with the A-Z Challenge music and writing: Something Local

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