They wanted to save the retirement checks for Maria's education and for their own real retirement in twenty years. He was determined that she was not going to work, other than caring for Maria at home. She had worked long enough over the years, both earning a salary to subsidize his meager check, and volunteering for any number of wives functions. No, now it was time for them to settle into a routine nine to five, and claim their piece of the American dream.
After more than two months of indecision, he finally accepted a job with the Nissan Corporation in Tennessee. He was to be the Total Quality Manager at the Smyrna truck plant, using a skill that he learned in the Navy, and polished in his own after hour's studies. The job wouldn't make them rich, but it wouldn't hurt.
The salary was almost double what he had earned in the Navy, and required that he put in about half the hours per week. They also provided him with a shiny new car every two years, and that was a plum many executives did not receive. He was to start in three weeks, and was really looking forward to it.
Well, two more days in the big apple and they would be off to start their new life, in a rented house less than two miles from the factory.
On his fourth day of freedom, Mike got up at 5:15 A.M. sharp.
After a quick SS&S (shit, shower and shave), he walked back into the bedroom. A glance at the bed showed him that his darling was still sleeping. A beautiful grin told him that she was having a happy dream. Not all of her dreams had been happy lately. She too had feared the big transition that accompanied his retirement from the military. After eighteen years of marriage to a Navy man, she had forgotten many things about the outside world. He watched with a hunger that surprised him, as she stretched and let the sheet slip to the floor. She was thirty nine years old, and still had a body like a model, well, more like a German bar girl, but one that attracted a lot of stares and second looks. He was incredibly proud when he took her out somewhere. She was beautiful and she exuded class and demeanor.
He decided that he would go out and have a cup of coffee and look at the morning paper. As he bent to give her a kiss, she reached up and placed her arm around his neck. "You thought I was sleeping, didn't you?" , She purred. "Well I wasn't, I was just lying here enjoying your smell, and the morning sounds you make."
"I thought I would go out and grab a cup of coffee while you two slept in," he said. She reached up and felt for his manhood and asked "are you sure you don't want to sleep in yourself?" Even though he felt a stirring inside, he backed away.
"You horny old woman, why do you want to bother an old man this early in the morning?" "Well, you can't blame a girl for trying." , She said. Even as she answered he could see she was drifting off to sleep. "I love you," he said as he slipped out of the door. As she heard him walk down the hall she whispered "I love you too...."
As he sipped the strong Colombian coffee and watched the Manhattan traffic thunder by, he thought of the day ahead. First they would take Maria to the Museum of natural science and History.
Afterwards they would stop and eat lunch, and then catch the train to the Bronx to take in the 5:00 p.m. Yankee game. There they would dine on Hot dogs and beer (Pepsi for Maria), buy some cheap souvenirs and take in their first big league ball game together. Mike had seen a few years earlier, but Melinda and Maria had never been to one. After the game they would head back to the Hotel, and call it a night. Tomorrow they would get ready to head for Tennessee.
He sighed as he skimmed through the morning edition of the times. The front page screamed out all the bad news in the world. The crime, the politics, the refugees and the natural disasters, it was the same watching the evening news on TV, the negative ruled the world. He folded the paper up and placed the empty coffee cup and half-eaten bagel on it. He thought to his self as he stood that he, Melinda and Maria would just live for each other and leave all the negativity to itself. It was time to go and enjoy the day.
