Needs Unfulfilled
by David Johnson
George won a small victory over his fears and walked slowly
through the big double doors of the senior center. This room used to be a
cafeteria back when the building was a school, but now that the kids had a
new school and the city laid claim to the old one, the old cafeteria was the
new senior center. Funny thing. Maybe life really is just a big circle. Sixty-
three years old and here he was back at the first day of school again.
He took a quick glance around the room to check out the other kids.
"Old people," he thought to himself, "When the hell did I become one of
those?"
Spotting an empty chair at one of the closer tables, he headed
toward it.
"Is this seat taken?" he asked one of the ladies at the table.
"No it's not," she chirped, "you just sit yourself down here with us"
There were two men and four women at the table. One of the ladies
was his age but the rest of the group members were a few years older,
which was just fine with him. If there's one thing he wanted to be at the
senior center, it was the youngest one there. The chipper woman he had
spoken to was Sarah. She was proudly the oldest at the table and she took
it upon herself to make sure introductions were made all around.
Marion, the woman close to George's own age said, "Randolph was
just telling us about his wife and her adventures with the grandchildren."
Here she paused and briefly let her eyes go up and down George. "Are
you married George?"
He felt his face flush as the table full of strangers waited for his
reply. In an instant, a million thoughts raced through his head. Should he
tell them that he was married but his wife died? Should he tell them that he
never married? Or should he tell them...
"I'm gay. I had a lover, but he died a few years back."
The silence that followed was probably only a few seconds long,
but it felt like forever. And in that forever, in that silence George felt proud
of himself for saying what he had said. Then the silence ended.
"Oh..." said Marion suddenly fascinated by the fold in her napkin.
"Excuse me," Randolph said as he stood and walked away.
"Laura dear," said Sarah in her best diplomatic voice, "tell me again
about that banana bread you made. Was it very difficult?"
***************************************************
Linda looked at the clock on her desk. 4:45. "Close enough," she
thought and she turned off her computer. Another Friday night in Akron
was upon her and she was dateless. Again. In fact, she had not been on a
single date since she and Carly split up eight months earlier. Not that she
wasn't ready. It had taken a little while, but she had gotten over it and now
she felt ready to wade back out into the pool of human interaction. Of
course, she didn't know how deep she would be willing to go. She had no
intentions whatsoever of packing the U-Haul anytime soon, but she was at
least willing to begin the process of over-processing another person. She
just wasn't sure how to go about doing that anymore.
She used to go to the bars every weekend. In fact, that's where she
found her last two relationships. But since she quit smoking, it bothered
her to stay very long so she just didn't bother to go at all. Then there was
always softball. Or at least there was until she tore her Achilles' Tendon
and had to retire for a while. As for the pot-luck circuit, she removed
herself from that when she realized that every other person involved was
an ex lover. So, where did that leave her? She didn't have a clue.
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