To him, they looked free. They looked peaceful. God do I miss that. When was the last time that Sally and I were together long enough to go out like that? Of course, he had no idea. He just couldn’t remember anything of the past few years. Because of that, he began to feel like his life was passing him by. He was now thirty years old, but felt older than that. Everything else, just felt like a blur.
“This isn’t good enough Jimmy. This shouldn’t be that hard.” Maggery put his hands to his hips, watching him closely. The break had to be coming. He could almost feel it.
“Maybe, you should have done it yourself then.” Jimmy watched the trees bob slightly from the causal wind that must have caused it.
Seeing them, almost feeling them, his mind began to wander even more than it already was. Why am I thinking like this? What did I do wrong? What changed? Suddenly, he stopped the thoughts. He couldn’t think anymore. He couldn’t defend himself. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted to try. He just couldn’t do anything but watch the car with the young couple drive away and leave the parking lot.
“What was that?” Maggery felt his chest rise hard under his chin. If what he heard was true, he couldn’t believe that it was Jimmy that said it.
He turned from the window and back towards his boss with nothing but the thought of the breeze blowing against the trees on his mind. “You heard me.” This wasn’t like him to say what he was. He didn’t like to fight. He didn’t like to ask for it to happen, and yet here he was, doing just that. When he started, his heart went from a typically rattled flutter to a calming ease all at once. With it, he took a deep breath and felt the coolness of the air conditioning of the store blast his lungs. Normally, he would have simply agreed with Maggery, just said yes sir, and moved on from there, but not this time. This time he felt that so much had changed. Maybe it was the feeling of the helplessness that was coursing through his soul, or maybe it was something else entirely, but something did happen. He felt helpless to stop it when it started. He suddenly knew that the finish was coming whether he wanted it to or not.
“I thought that’s what you said.” Maggery crossed the short three feet between him and his store manager with a newly found flash in his steps. “Then, maybe, you aren’t the man that I thought you were.” He smiled. He knew that Jimmy had always been a great employee. He worked hard for the five years that he worked for him, but the pressure he was under to cut his payroll had become more than he could stand. Five years’ worth as a store manager was too much money to continue to pay out. He had to get rid of the waste. He had to trim the fat, and that meant that he had to get rid of Jimmy. He didn’t have the choice anymore.
Jimmy heard the words, but could only swallow a dry mouth. A single tear formed in his right eye, and streaked down his cheek. After all, five years of working for a company was a long time to spend with a place. For a moment, he could just stand there and listen to the two of them breathe. Feeling the tear, and knowing himself, he turned back to the window and to the world outside it. He knew that he was going to cry. He knew that he was going to break down. I can’t let him see me cry. I can’t do it. I won’t. He did have pride after all. He didn’t have much, but he still had it.
“I can’t keep doing this, Mister Maggery. I just can’t.” A second tear rolled out of the corner of his eye and flowed down his cheek with a gentle streak.
Mark Maggery blinked. “I think it’s time to make the change then.” The pressure of everything slowly faded away as pride swelled up inside his chest. He couldn’t believe how well everything just turned out.
“I understand.” Jimmy sighed with a wince. All felt done as another single tear rolled down his cheek. It followed almost the same path down his face.
Maggery nodded. “I need your keys Jimmy.” He felt like dancing and felt complete. Now, all he had to do was to get the keys, call up Marty Daniels, the new manager that he had lined up the night before, and get him there to take over his new store. The excuse for the mess, the one that he planned to blame on Jimmy, was now ready. Mister Gregory, his boss, would accept the excuse. He always did.
That’s it. Jimmy took a deep breath. The keys to the store were the symbols of his job. They were what he used to open the front doors. They went to his office. They went to the safe that was tucked neatly under his desk. They were a part of his person. Letting them go would mean the end of him being the store manager of Store 555 of the Save Money small box store chain. He reached down and unclipped them from his belt, brought the bright metal up, and looked at them with an endless fascination. They clanged gently before him. A single ray of light twinkled into his tear filled right eye. Its dimness looked so subtle that a gentle sparkle formed right in front of him. Slowly, he turned, holding the keys for just a moment longer, he held them out to Maggery.
“Thank you, Jimmy.” Maggery tried hard not to smile any more than he probably already was. He looked at Jimmy and could see the tear stain on his cheek. Seeing it, the pressure completely disappeared from his soul. It gave him strength. He loved the look. He felt the power. He took the keys.
Jimmy took a deep breath and allowed everything that happened to overwhelm him instantly. He had nothing else left to do. “I’ll clean out my desk.” He could feel the weight of those keys suddenly gone. Later, as he drove home, he would feel ridiculous for feeling the way he now was, but at that moment, he did feel it. He already missed them. He felt naked. He felt lost without them.
“I’ll go with you.” Maggery did not intend to allow a now former employee to be alone in his office. Too many things could be stolen. He had to protect the assets of the store. He didn’t trust anyone to have the chance.
Jimmy could do nothing more. He left the front of the store, made his way down the closest aisle to him, and made his way to the backroom of the store. Maggery followed him through the storeroom, and to his office.
Once inside it, the feeling of seeing it for the last time became almost too much for him to bear. After all, this was going to be the last time that he was ever going to see it again. The feeling was something like the reverse of having deja-vu. Instead of feeling something expected, it felt like a longing. It felt like the end, but it also felt like something new. It meant that everything had changed forever.
He gathered his things. He really didn’t have all that much there but a coffee cup and his lightweight spring style coat, so he put it on, and took the cup into his hand. It would be later at home that he would realize that the cup was the one that he received from the company for doing so well with his last store. If he thought about it further, he would not have taken it home.
When he finished, he left the store, and slowly went outside to his car parked at the back of the building. Climbing inside it, he felt nothing but numb all over. Everything happened all too quickly to register in his overly tired mind. Now all he had to do was to go home. Something, that now, sitting in his car, seemed rather difficult for him to do. So, he sat there, looking at the brick wall of the store and now had Sally come up in his thoughts. How will she accept what happened? How is she going to take this? How are we going to survive? Everything flashed before him. He didn’t have an answer for anything, but could only hope that she would understand. After all, it wasn’t his fault, so why would she be angry for it? Either way, he knew that he would have to wait to find out.
After a few minutes, he finally started the car and put it in gear.
After another few minutes, he finally moved.
Driving out of the parking lot of his now former store, he began to feel worried. He wasn’t used to change. He wasn’t used to starting fresh, and that small fact now weighed heavier on him than any set of keys ever would.
3
“You what?” Sally felt numb all over and instantly felt her legs go weak. Her heart skipped several beats as her mind exploded with everything all at once. Her thoughts seemed even worse. She wasn’t expecting any of this and it showed. She didn’t want to hear it. She couldn’t believe what the
words even meant. Worse yet, she couldn’t accept him for saying any of it. “You can’t be joking?” How can he joke about such a thing? Why would he do that? How dare he ruin my night?
“I’m serious.” Jimmy tossed his coat onto the back of the sofa and set his Save Money coffee mug to the top of the coffee table in front of it. Feeling numb was an understatement. He felt like he was just sucker punched in the groin by a supposed friend. He hurt all over and his thoughts were not his own. His whole body felt quite frankly blank. “I got fired. I don’t know why, but I did.”
“What the hell are you going to do now?” She paused, feeling her heart clench her chest. How could he be fired? You’ve been working at that damn place for years. Did you get lazy? What did you fuck up now? The ideas seemed endless as suddenly a new feeling crept up into her mind. It wasn’t fear that she felt, but was something that was closer to pity. How could this man, a man that she has lived with for over two years now, be so damned pitiful to be alive? He was stronger than what he sounded like now. There was a lot more to him than this. It all told her that he wasn’t the man that she thought he was. She hated thinking this. She hated feeling it, but she was. “I can’t believe you let yourself get fired,” she huffed and puffed as her body suddenly felt like it wanted to start shaking.
He shrugged his shoulders as he stared at her, but saw nothing at all. “I didn’t let this happen.” He didn’t know how to react or what to feel about anything. He just had the truth of what happened, and that was it. “I did my best. I did everything he ever asked of me. I tried.” He shrugged his shoulders again, still not thinking straight. “I think he was determined to fire me. I just don’t know why.” It was the only explanation for what happened. He had been the best manager they ever had; at least that’s what they told him so many times before. He was supposed to be good at his job. He was supposed to be an expert at cleaning up stores, so why else would he fire him? Why else would he not even try to listen to what he said? It only made sense. His drive home gave him the time to think about everything. It gave him the time to ponder about all of the motives. All of it helped him with the only explanation that he had left.
She shrugged and again she huffed. She didn’t believe him. He looked beyond pitiful to look at right. “Then you should have worked harder. You should have stayed later to get it right. You should have done everything and anything to keep your job.” She hated hearing what she was. She hated it when people wouldn’t do what they were supposed to do, and now, listening to him quiver, it made everything feel worse. She heard it in his voice. He was using excuses. He was trying to make her feel sorry for him and she hated him for doing that.
He listened and nodded. “I did all that I could do. The place was too much of a mess to be fixed.” He crossed his arms over his chest. He heard what she said and tried to understand everything. What he did understand was her worry. Hell, he shared it. “I did all that I could do. He just didn‘t want to listen to me. He didn‘t seem to want to help.”
“Then it wasn’t enough.” Sally backed away and walked over to the bay window at the front of their apartment, and there, looked out to the street that ran along the front of their home. With the light white curtains in front of the window, she could see the streetlight just outside it clearly. Beneath it, the world looked peaceful. Everything looked clear. None of that clarity was now in her home and she began to regret that sight—this feeling in her heart and mind. She began to regret him. How could things have changed to what they had? She didn’t know, but she did know that she didn’t intend to be poor again. She couldn’t go back to that life. She only knew how to go forward, and worse yet, he wasn’t fighting anything. He seemed to be just rolling over. How could he do that? Being that way, she didn’t intend to stay with him any more than she already had. She didn’t come there for that. She liked the life they had. She turned down so much to live that life. “I don’t know Jimmy. I don’t. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
He could hear the worry in her voice and understood it, but as far as he was concerned, they were still together. “We’ll figure it out.” As long as they were, he knew that they would be able to work through it. They loved each other, so why wouldn’t they? “I can get another job. With my experience, I can get anything, I’m sure of it. I’m still young. The world is open to me.” He left the coffee table, went up behind the love of his life, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He hugged her tightly as the smell of her blonde hair flushed through his nose. The warmth of her touch smothered his belly. She felt so wonderful. She always felt so right. Feeling her there with him, he knew they could do anything. It told him that even now, he knew that everything was going to be fine. He just felt it. It was just going to be tough for a little while.
Feeling his arms wrap around her, she couldn’t stand it. In fact, it felt almost revolting to her. She didn’t need the feeling. She didn’t want him to touch her. “No,” she shot back, and pushed him off her. “I can’t do this Jimmy. I won’t live that way again.” She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. She didn’t even want to try.
She turned and left him standing there with his arms still up, made her way to the coat closet, to the right of the front door at the side of the living room, opened it up, and took out her jacket. She put it on and closed the closet door with a shudder.
“I won’t go back to being poor.” She had grown up with parents that struggled every day of their lives. She had nothing when she grew up. They gave her nothing. When she met Jimmy, all of that seemed to change. He had money. He had means. He was strong. He could take care of her and that made him stable. He wasn’t all that great looking, but with the money around them, and the protection he offered her, she didn’t care. She could overlook everything that was bad about him as long as she had that, but now, all of that changed. Everything ended. She knew that she could do so much better than that—than him.
“Honey?” He could feel his chest sink and his mind grow even number than it already was. Again, he didn’t know what to do or what to think. “Where are you going?” Why is she acting this way? What did I do? None of this was his fault. Why would she blame him for it? He didn’t seem to understand anything anymore. He seemed to be doing everything wrong.
She shrugged as she reached for the front door and opened it, stopping just under the doorjamb.
“I’m going over to a friend’s place. I need time to think.” She turned and left, slamming the door behind her.
With that, he stood there motionless and unable to move. Did he just have what happened happen? Did he hear everything that was said?
The day just passed into night. The time just went by. How long he stood there, staring at the front door, he didn’t know that either. He just knew that everything went by. His job, his life, his girlfriend just vanished with the passing of day and the coming of night. All else went unsaid, until the sun came up, and then—and only then—he finally moved.
4
“That just sucks man.” Brandon tried hard to sound concerned as he drank the beer from his glass. He loved Jimmy a lot. They had been best friends for God knows how long, so he felt for his friend. He could hear the pain flaring from his voice. Hell, it seemed to ooze from his soul. However, hearing what he was, only made him happy. He hated Sally. He always had. Besides that, he didn’t really care all that much. He just wanted to drink. He just wanted the quiet, and now that she was out of the picture, he and Jimmy could get back to what they always were. She got in the way, and that was that.
“I don’t know how things came to this. First, my job, and then Sally leaves me. I thought she loved me. I thought I had everything figured out. I don’t know what in the hell happened. I guess I’m just a fucking fool.” Jimmy took a sip from his glass and looked across the bar to the mirror ahead of him. Why do bars always have mirrors behind them? His thoughts were always random, and he proved that small fact again.
“She was a bitch. I don’t know why you ever put up with her?” Brandon
finished his beer with one solid gulp. He had never been one to want to waste a beer. Why are we even talking about her? We’re supposed to be having fun. This wasn’t sitting all that well with him. Why Jimmy was with her, he would never know that either. He can do so much better than being with her. What he did know was why she left. She was nothing but a user and an abuser. She used him from the beginning. She was beautiful yes, but that was where everything else she had ended. She was with him for only one reason that he could ever think of. She wanted the money. She wanted the life that he gave her. As far as he was concerned about it, all women were like that. He knew it all too well.
“Don’t call her that,” Jimmy shot back with a dramatic flair. He took another sip from his glass. Listening to his best friend, and hearing what he was, wasn’t doing anything else but making him angry. Brandon always talked about Sally like this. It hurt him every time he put her down. Even now, even after she left him, he couldn’t bring himself to stop those feelings from being there. At times like these, he couldn’t help but wonder how he and Brandon were friends at all.
Brandon heard his voice crack almost like a whip striking the air. Why in the fuck is he doing this? She left you buddy. She left you cold! He was still defending her, even now. He couldn’t believe what he heard and it all made him just have to shake his head with disgust.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 2
