Mustang
Sally
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.
This
story
is dedicated to my grandfather, Isidore Hecht