Saturday Night(Martin Green) 2024 Saturday Night (Approx. 350 wds.)

It was a Saturday night. Paul Lerner, a retiree and now a widower, sat in his living room chair. The screen on the TV in front of him was black. Paul and his wife Sally used to watch television every night, mostly shows that she liked. He didn’t mind watching shows that he considered syrupy because it was something they did together. Now he rarely watched TV besides sports; it was too painful.

Paul, who was a writer (he did a regular column for his retirement community’s paper), had written a little story he called “Night was the Worst Time.” It was true, he thought. He could keep himself occupied most of the day but at night when there was nothing more to do there was no escaping it---he was an old guy in an empty house and it was awful. There was no other word for it unless it was “terrible.” Well, tomorrow was Sunday and the football games would be on. That would get him through most of the day.

Paul pulled himself out of his chair, something getting increasingly hard to do. He went into the kitchen and rinsed off some dishes he’d used and put them away. He did his bathroom business and got into bed. Another day without falling. He supposed that was a small victory. Why, on top of everything else, when you got old, did your balance go off.

At some point during their long marriage, Paul and Sally had gotten into the habit of kissing each other every night before going to sleep. Then, when Paul got too old for him to comfortably roll over on his side they began to hold hands every night. Now, every so often Paul would wake up during the night and reach over to hold Sally’s hand. He was a writer and you’d think his imagination was good enough so that he could believe she was there but it wasn’t the same as her physical presence. After a while he’d give up. He’d usually cry a little; he couldn’t help it. Eventually he’d fall back to sleep.

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