The Article by Jackie Zufall (large screen ebook reader .txt) 📕

I said, “What do you mean”, “like maybe he killed her or something”? “Well, a lot of people wondered, including my own parents, I heard them talking bout it one night not long after her funeral, but when I asked them what they meant they just told me they were “talking off the tops of their heads”, whatever that is supposed to mean”.

Their conversation was temporarily interrupted by a voice coming from the side of the house behind them.

“Now why am I not surprised to find you two here together, just like always, where there’s one of you the other was always close by”, laughed Abby. Both men turned their heads to see Abby coming round the back of the house towards them. “Hey girl”, said Jay, while I mustered a quiet, “Abby”, with a tilt of my head. Jay continued teasingly, “And why am I not surprised to see you here, like always, where ever we were there you were stalking Paul”, he teased good naturedly. “In the words of my oldest child, replied Abby with a smile“,” Whatever”.

Jay reaching out and placing his hand on Paul’s shoulder as he rose from his seat, said, “Well Paul, I guess I best get home before Susie sends out the national guard looking for me”. Paul looked up at Jay and replied, “I want to talk to you some more bout what we were discussing ok”? “Sure”, replied Jay, “I’ll come out in the morning to help you out around here some, being the boss gives me certain privileges like missing work when I want too”, he chuckled. “Boss”? Paul inquired. “Oh didn’t I tell you, I own the market place now, bought it with all the money I saved working there for my whole life”, he said. “Anyway, till tomorrow then, Abby, you behave yourself now”, he continued teasingly. “Well I do declare Jay, I have no idea what you are talking bout”, replied Abby, blushing. “Whatever”, replied Jay, walking away. “See you later”, I called, blushing a bit myself as I glanced quickly at Abby to see if she noticed, while just as quickly I glanced away. “So Abby”, I said as I raised from my own seat and proceeded to pick up empty bottles etc, and heading toward the house with her following, “What brings you by”? “Well, Paul, we didn’t get much of a chance to chat earlier, I thought I would just stop by and see how you’ve been doing for the past 15 years”, she said with a mild accusing tone to her voice. “Look Abby”, I practically yelled as I threw the bottles in the trash bin on the porch. “I am sorry, as I told Jay earlier, I was not thinking straight that day, and I just had to get out of here”. Looking a little pallid, she replied, “I didn’t mean to upset you Paul, I just thought, well… Forget it”. “I’m sorry Abby”, I replied turning to her, “I shouldn’t have yelled like that”. “These last few days have been a bit stressful I guess, I know it is not an excuse, but…”. “No”, she replied, “I understand, you don’t have to apologize”. “Yes I do”, I answered back, “there is no reason to be rude and I apologize”. “Ok then, apology accepted”, she replied. “Come on in Abby, I’ll make us some coffee and we can talk”, I said back.

Hours later, as Abby pulled out of the driveway, Paul waving, started playing back in his mind their evening together, not that he could remember much of their conversation, all he could really remember was the way his heart was pounding and the way he kept telling himself that he was a grown man and he needed to check himself, after all, he had no right to the thoughts he had been thinking about Abby as they spent the evening talking over the old days and their lives since then. “Oh well”, he said to himself as he cleared the table and turned off the kitchen light, “yesterday was yesterday, and this is today, time to get on with life and stop thinking bout what could have been”, laughing he said to himself again, “great now I have taken to talking to myself as well, maybe Jays right, I do have “old-timers” disease. In addition, he laughed to himself as he settled down on the couch for another restless nights sleep.


Chapter Five

The next morning dawned bright with beautiful blue skies and occasional puffy white clouds passing by. As Paul was finishing up his breakfast dishes, he heard a car pull up outside, actually he thought to himself, sounds like cars, plural. Walking to the door, he glanced out a side window in passing to see not only Jays pickup, but three other cars as well. Stepping out onto the porch, he saw that Jay and Susie were in their truck followed by Abby and her brothers, Gilbert and Wayne, that car was followed by two other cars with three passengers in the first one and two in the last, the three turned out to be Allen, Don and John Jr. and the other two were, Josh and Justin, cousins, whose fathers are brothers, all were buddies from the football team that he and Jay had played on in high school.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in”, called out Paul as he stepped off the porch, he and all the guys took turns clapping each other on the back and shaking hands. “Yeah”, said Jay, “they heard you were out here up to your eyeballs with home improvement problems and well we all know you used to be bout as handy as a handyman as a big foot clown would be trying to walk a tightrope”. Winking at Paul as he said this. “Well, anyway”, replied Paul, “it is really good to see all of you, now get to work”, he demanded playfully.

The morning passed by quickly with everyone pairing off and working on different things needed doing, After finishing with painting the shutters the guys had taken down for them, the girls went into the house to prepare a lunch of cold cut sandwiches, chips, and drinks which included, tea, water, or their favorite brews.

“So”, said Paul, as they sat around the picnic table in the yard eating their lunch, “What have all you guys been up too”? “Well”, replied Gilbert, Wayne and I turned dad’s hardware store into a chain, I have a store over in Meadowbrook and Wayne has a store over in Sherman”. “Wow”, said Paul, impressed, “I had no idea, congratulations”. “I am the coach of the high school football team”, interjected Allen. “Oh no”, Paul said, “Hope you aren’t as tough as Ole Coach O’Ryan was”. “No, I’m tougher”, laughed Allen. They all laughed, then Paul said “well how bout the rest of you, Don what are you up to these days”? “I bought out ole man Jenkins Garage after I finished taking a mechanics course at the college”. “John works with me there, my top sales man”. Then Josh piped up, “Justin and I co-own a computer sales store over in Meadowbrook”. “Well”, replied Paul, “sounds like we all did all right for ourselves considering this hick town we all were hatched in”. They all laughed and spent another half hour talking over old times before returning to work, which with the eleven of them was really getting done fast. By that evening they had basically done all the wood repairs that needed doing, the roof was patched, the porch no longer sported any holes, windows had been replaced and the shutters had finished drying so they could have a second coat of paint applied later.

“I can’t thank you all enough for helping me with all this”, Paul said to them as they were cleaning up for the evening. “Hey, no sweat”, replied Allen. “We’ll all be back tomorrow and we can get this place painted in no time, then we can get working on the yard too”. “Hey you guys don’t have to help with all this”, answered Paul, “although I do certainly appreciate the help”. “We know we don’t but see if we help then we can get into good graces with the ladies charities in town as having done our good deed for the year”, joked Jay. “Besides, this way, the month you took off from work, can be spent with all of us, we can take off for couple weeks and go camp at the lake like we used too, give you a chance to see some of the others and also meet all your “nieces and nephews”, teased Jay using his fingers to signal quotation marks. “Great”, Paul answered back just as teasingly, “just want I want a bunch of rug rats calling me Uncle”.

Chapter Six

Stepping out of the shower forty five minutes later, Paul wrapped a towel around his waist and as he opened the door was surprised to hear what sounded like someone in the kitchen, wondering who or what could be in there he flew out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, as he stepped through the doorway and saw Abby standing at the stove cooking, his towel caught on a nail on the door frame and came off just as she turned around to face him, in his surprise to find her there he did not notice, but Abby did and said, “Well, are we that glad to see me”, smiling as well as blushing as her eyes passed down the front of him, suddenly he was aware of the draft and looked down, flustered, he bent and grabbed his towel and ran for the bedroom that had been his mothers sewing room. Abby giggled to herself as she turned and continued to spread garlic butter onto the loaf of French bread she was preparing to go with the spaghetti that was simmering on the stove.

A short time later, Paul rejoined her fully dressed now and still blushing a bit, noticing his reddened cheeks, Abby taunted him a bit more, “Feel a little bit more draftless”? Embarrassed all over again, Paul answered shortly with a bit of his embarrassment disguised as anger, “What are you doing back here anyway”? “Don’t you get high and mighty with me Paul Zimmerman, just cause you dropped the “ball” so to speak”, she said with a false clearing of her throat after the word, ball. “I thought I would be nice and come fix you a nice dinner seeing how I noticed you had nothing here and thought you might like a good meal after working so hard all day”. “I was about to go to town and eat at the diner for your information”, he retorted back at her, still trying to sound angry, and failing miserably. Then realizing that it was a nice jester and it really was not her fault his towel had fallen off, nor her fault she tried to ease the awkwardness of the moment by making a joke, he apologized again for what seemed the hundredth time in the past couple days. “That’s ok, besides it’s not like you have anything I haven’t seen before, just cause it’s been bout 15 years since I saw it last”, she teased him again. “Alright already, enough”, he yelled, though smiling behind her back.

“That was great Ab”, remarked Paul sometime later as he leaned back in his chair, “though I think I ate enough to feed an army, boy am I stuffed”. He looked across the table at Abby, noticing for the first time, the ring on the chain around her neck, it was the promise ring he had worked for three months of weekends as a kid in her fathers store to buy for