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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Drama / Human Interest
- Subject: General Interest
- Published: 06/25/2022
Scenes From a Life---Good-Byes
Born 1929, M, from Roseville/CA, United States2022Byes
Scenes From a Life---Good-Byes
“I’ve made you some sandwiches.”
“Mom, they’ll serve lunch on the airplane.”
“So, who knows what they’ll give you. Here, take the sandwiches.”
“Okay.”
The year was in the mid-fifties. It was the first week of January. Arnold’s birthday, his 25th, had been in the last week of December. It was, he thought, an appropriate time to start a new life.
Arnold had been drafted during the Korean War. When he came back it had been to his old bedroom in his parents’ apartment in the Bronx. After a long search he’d gotten a job with an advertising agency in Manhattan. Advertising at that time was supposed to be a glamour industry but the starting salary, at least for someone in the research department, was low, too low for Arnold to afford his own place. After two years, he felt he was getting nowhere. He’d kept in touch with a guy he’d met in the Army, Ray Foxboro, who was a UC Berkeley grad now living in San Francisco and who was always telling him what a great place it was and urging him to come out there. Then someone from his ad agency’s San Francisco office had come in and he said the same thing.
When Arnold had first told his mother and father about possibly going to California his mother was ready to disown him. “What, you have it so bad here?” she said. You have a place to live. You have a job. Out there, what do you have? Nothing. Who’ll do your laundry? How will you eat?” But his father had said that Arnold was a grown man now and he could make his own choices and that settled it.
His co-workers at the agency also thought he was crazy to just quit his job and go out to California. The San Francisco office didn’t have any job openings. What if he couldn’t find anything else? The head of the Research Department did give him a nice letter of recommendation.
The taxicab that was to take him to LaGuardia airport had arrived. Arnold said good-bye to his mother. “Be sure to call me when you get there,” she said. She was crying.
* * *
“Ready to go?” said Arnold.
“Yes,” said Marilyn.
It was the 1960’s. They were in the San Francisco apartment Arnold had found shortly after getting a job in a local ad agency. The agency’s pay wasn’t that much more than he’d been making in New York but apartment rents in San Francisco were much cheaper. He’d met Marilyn at a party six months before. She was an attractive girl in what Arnold thought was a typical California way, blonde and tanned. However, she was really from Minnesota. In any case, Arnold thought he was in love with her. But she was elusive. “We’re having fun,” she said. “Let’s just keep it that way.” Last night was the first time she’d stayed over. She was flying back to her hometown in Minnesota because her father had had a heart attack. Arnold was going to drive her to the airport.
The plane was ready to leave. Marilyn stood up. “I’d better get in line,” she said. Arnold stood up and hugged her. “Call me when you get there,” he said.
“I will, if I have time. Thanks for taking me.”
She walked quickly away and in a few moments disappeared inside the gate. Arnold stayed until the plane took off. He walked back to the parking lot and got into his car. He sat there for a long time before he drove off. He had a feeling that he’d never see Marilyn again.
* * *
“I’d better get going,” said Mark.
It was a morning in the 1990’s. Arnold’s son Mark had come up to their retirement community just outside of Sacramento to say good-bye. After Arnold’s ad agency in San Francisco had lost its major client and shut down Arnold had gotten a research job with the State, married Sally (Marilyn had never come back), and moved to Sacramento. Mark and his wife Fiona were leaving for Ireland the next day. She was in Santa Cruz doing the last-minute packing. Mark had stayed the night with them.
Mark was a computer engineer, working for a tech company in Silicon Valley. Fiona had come from Ireland to work there as an intern. They’d married the year before and lived in an apartment in Santa Cruz. Their commute to work from there was difficult, over an hour on a winding highway. Houses anywhere were expensive. They’d decided they’d have a better quality of life in Ireland. Arnold had tried to dissuade them but Mark was insistent. He had it all planned out. They had enough money to live on for a year. Ireland was having a tech boom and he was sure they could find jobs in that time. They’d visited Ireland the year before and he’d seen how happy Fiona was there. They were going to Ireland.
Sally hugged Mark for a long time, then Arnold gave him a brief hug. He gave Mark an envelope. “It’s a check, to cover your air fare.”
“You didn’t have to. We have enough---“
“Take it. Don’t forget to call to let us know you got there.”
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