A Rose by any Other Name

It might sound rude to liken the noise the women were making to a hen house but it would be fairly accurate. Sally knew what the old hens called her behind her back or when they thought her hearing aid was turned off, but then again, she referred to the Center as the “old goat’s home” so she supposed she shouldn't throw stones in this Floridian glass house.

But, by any name, hens or goats, the cackling and the very loud whispers all echoed the very same. The wire was all abuzz with it, although with their hearing not being what it once was, some of it might have been lost in translation. But one fact remained and it was big, bigger than big, this was thirty-six point headline type of news. What? You hadn't heard? You hadn't seen? Tsk-tsk... Have you been in a cave? Archie, the new guy, could drive at night.

The sadness was so deep Archie thought it would be easy to succumb to it. They probably expected he would. After more than two-thirds of a century -- let that roll around in your head for awhile -- how do you now learn to live by yourself? Talk about teaching an old dog a new trick, this was daunting beyond belief.

But Archie still believed in life and thought he owed it to his lost loved one to keep on going. Let her get situated wherever she now was before he barged in trailing his stinky cigar smoke. No doctor in heaven was going to tell him to knock off smoking cigars. And if one actually had the chutzpah to do so, well, Archie was prepared to tell him where to go.

Archie called one of his grandsons who had been recently divorced after a very long relationship. The only divorcée in the family, if he could learn to cook for one, then Archie could too. Get the basic necessities covered first and then go from there. And although he loved talking to the grandkids, he rarely picked up the phone to call them, he was stubborn. But Archie did pick up the phone and heard what he needed to hear. It was almost like he received permission to keep on going. He was ninety-three, but he wasn't done, not by a long shot.

They called her Mustang Sally and she knew damned sure why but she didn't care. To heck with them and to heck with the Early Bird Specials; Sally knew that there was life after dark. Although her sight wasn't good enough to drive at night, she could still dance and sing and go out on the town.

Had she fought hard to get Louie's attention? Damn right she had, he was a kind old gent, and that car? Well, it brought Sally back to thoughts of the Jersey shore and fine nylon stockings and the back seats of cars such as Louie's Mustang. Hey! She was seventy-nine (and had been for a few years) but she wasn't dead, not by a long shot! So what if she still thought of back seats and what went on in them. Mind you, the spirit was willing even if the body wasn't entirely able to make love in the back seat any longer; Sally could still think about it.

Archie drove a Buick. Yes, it was an old man's car, but he didn't look like an old man. And yes, Sally pursued him like she pursued Louie, like she pursued a few of the widowed gentlemen who came to the old goat’s home with the deep, sad aura that only recent loss can give birth to. Sally was no spring chicken, she would admit that, but she got around great; still liked to dance and there was no way she was going to put the chain on the door just because it had gotten dark outside.

So Sally asked Archie to buy her a cup of coffee even though she only drank decaf (doctor's orders) and it was always free at the center. And the decaf lead to conversation and the conversation lead to dinner at the kosher joint in town and before you knew it - they were an item. And even though Archie drove a Buick, the hens still cackled and still called her Mustang Sally.

She didn't care even though Archie wouldn't tell her how old he was. There was still a lot of life in him and he had a great, deep baritone voice and strong hands and he could cut a rug and ... he could drive at night. Archie would lead her into the restaurant proudly on his arm as the rest of them were paying their senior citizen reduced-rate, early bird special checks and getting home before the sun set.

Sally reawakened something in Archie. She got his blood pumping and his face smiling and she made him happy. So happy in fact that Archie began to feel guilty. His dear wife of sixty-plus years was in the ground and before her stone was even erected, he had a girlfriend. The term seemed foreign but it couldn't be denied. That's what she was.

Archie picked the phone up again and he called his divorced grandson in Los Angeles. He told him about Sally; the grandson knew already because his mom, Archie's eldest daughter, had already told him, but he listened to his grandpa as if he were hearing it for the very first time.

And when it became his turn to finally speak, he told his dear, old grandpa this, that it was perfectly all right for Archie to have a girlfriend. That it was perfectly all right for Archie to have fun, that there was no set mourning time for him. That it was perfectly all right for Archie and Sally to sing together, to eat together, to dance together and if one thing led to another... Well, the grandson didn't necessarily need to picture this, but that was perfectly all right too.

So Archie and Sally did just that. They sang and they ate and they took long drives and they danced and they had fun and it was all perfectly all right.

Then, as it happens, a hurricane ripped through their section of Florida. Strangely enough, the storm was given the same name Archie and his wife had given their first born daughter. Wilma passed over Archie's house but she ripped the roof right off of Sally's. Much like he could never wish in his darkest fantasies to have met Sally earlier in life, he never would have dreamt of placing his girl's home in the path of destruction, but there it was.

She was fine; the place was literally ready for the wrecking ball. Of course Sally turned to Archie and of course he welcomed her into his home. He pretty much would've done anything for her, and although the term “shacking up” could never enter his head, that's exactly what they were doing even if it was the storm that forced the issue.

Archie's place had four walls and a roof but most other modern conveniences had been taken away by the hurricane named for his daughter and were on hold. Nobody knew exactly when they would get electricity or running water or cable television or telephone service back. By the look of things, it could be some time. Best estimates put it at weeks and never mentioned hours or even days. But you know what the thing is? Even though these modern conveniences had been their way of life, both of them had grown up long before the advent of some of them and had lived through days of antiquated water and power. Heck, this was a cake walk after the Great Depression and that they had endured for years, not just a fortnight or so.…

They lit candles and enjoyed the look of their glow on each other's faces, in each other's eyes (the candlelight easily took twenty years off). They got some ice to keep their food fresh but this, too, was nothing new. They both remember when an “ice box” was really just a box you put ice in.

Archie got himself a cell phone so the kids and the grandkids and even the great grandkid (Archie got a real thrill out of being a great anything) wouldn't worry about him. It rang for the first time that night. Neither of them knew how to answer it. So do you know what they did? They turned off the radio so as not to tax its batteries and they danced to the musical ring of the modern contraption in the ages old candlelight.