Well Timed

30 years later at the front desk of A&G...

“Excuse me dear, my wife and I would like to book into your wonderful hotel and we were wondering how long we could stay?” explained a dear old elderly gentleman talking into the face of Agnes who was now some 30 years older wearing tiny round glasses on the brim of her nose while she looked into the Financial Planner Diary in front of her for the gazillionth time. She then looked up at the man and said......

“Sir we have a lovely suite over looking the Loch that I can let you have for as long as you like” said Agnes in her best smiling voice.

“Are you saying we could stay here until we die young lady?” said the elderly gent with his eyes all wide with fright.

“You could stay longer if you like” said Agnes pointing to two ghost dogs snuggled up by the fire, one floating family of ghosts in the mirror above that said fireplace and a chair playing backgammon with himself.....and loosing. The elderly couple looked back at Agnes with incredulous looks on their faces and stuttered back......

" .....yes....I...I.....I....think this will work out nicely, how much will that be please?”

Agnes filled out the paperwork with gusto and Mortimer and Wilma Shytles booked into the A&G for the 60th wedding anniversary of a life time that they had saved for ages to do and Mortimer picked up his bag, slid the room key off the desk top and put it in his pocket then picked up his wife’s suitcase and began the slow walk up the stairs to his hotel room, which by the way was Ben and Aubrey’s old room.

Quite some distant for an old bloke whose maximum speed was the same as a herd of snails travelling through peanut butter while having his wife incessantly jabbering in his ear about everything she see’s. Some days Mortimer wished that his wife had a volume control and an On / Off switch so he could have some peace. But this was the start of their wedding anniversary and he wanted it to be special.

He loved his wife but he was sure she was keeping him alive just to torment him. There were days and nights, weeks and months when he would have gladly driven his car into the ocean and waited for high tide to take him, but he kept going and really....he enjoyed being with her.

Why else be with some one for 60+ years if there wasn’t a connection. They had 2 sons, 1 grandchild 4 different dogs over the years that always left them heart broken. Every time Mortimer was down the street with Wilma he would try so hard to nudge her past the pet shop and she always walked in and sulked over the puppies.

He would tell her in no uncertain terms that they were purchasing a tragedy in the making and of course some 7 to 14 years later, sure enough he was right....every time. Their back yard in Australia was a series of monuments of different shapes and sizes all dedicated to the pets that have died and out lived. The gardener would always get the same story from Wilma about how it could be time to get another one to which he would brush leaves from the driveway faster and faster.

Mortimer always knew how to get his wife’s attention in between her talking to him, he would just start talking to another woman and suddenly she was all ears. But in there 60 years of marriage they really hadn’t had an argument that was cause for divorce, murder yes, but never divorce.

He used to think that she was just waiting for him to die like the many pets they had owned, loved and said goodbye to. Mortimer loved to hold her hand when they went out partly because he was frightened if he let it go she would start shopping so saving up for their 60th wedding anniversary trip away was foremost in his mind and bank balance.

Now they were both there. The long flight, the long car drive, the short boat trip from land to the castle and now he was turning the keys in the lock to his room.....finally, and what a great room it was.

If he had closed his eyes he was going to have a detailed description thrust upon him at every turn about the state of the room, the furniture, the cleanliness, the open fire, the bathroom and the rugs on the floor so from all accounts he could have been blind and still know exactly what the room was like by just listening to his wife. Mortimer’s marriage was like a walk in the park.....Jurassic Park, but he was happy all the same as he put his suitcase down and took his toiletries into the bathroom. This was going to be an interesting holiday.