I placed the music cds on the counter and handed the clean-cut, young man a library card.
“Sir,” he said, examining the card, “is this your wife’s? Because if it is, I need to see some identification.”
“No, it’s not.” I stood my ground.
“Your wife’s not Micha … Micha …”
I pronounced the name for him. I gave him my driver’s license.
“She’s not you wife?”
“No,” I repeated. Instead of the interrogation, why couldn’t he just scan the items? A moment of silence fell between us. “It’s my mother’s library card,” I said. “I’m staying at her house this week. I’m going through a divorce.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
Unbelievable … no matter what he said I felt defeated. Maybe it was his Jim Carey look-a-like-appearance minus the facial expressions—all serious and shit.
“You’re not prying,” I said. “I volunteered that information.”
“Well I appreciate your honesty.”
“I’m sure you do,” I volleyed back.
More silence.
“Next time bring a note ...”
“… from my mother,” I finished for him.
He had to be joking, right? I wanted to tell him that I’m forty-seven years old, that I’ve been working for longer than since he was born, that currently I am homeless because someone thinks I deserve to be put out on the street, that when this whole experience is done two lawyers will have made a substantial amount of money and I’ll pretty much be starting over from scratch, including my retirement plans.
Instead, I thanked him and walked away.
Also, I'd like to thank The Walking Man's wife for the pink disposable razors and other miscellaneous items.
*Note: Lucinda William’s “Blessed” is awesome; I certainly can relate to her lyrics. Definitely worth listening to.
We were blessed by the teacher
Who didn’t have a degree
We were blessed by the prisoner
Who knew how to be free
We were blessed by the mystic
Who turned water into wine
We were blessed by the watchmaker
Who gave up his time
We were blessed by the wounded man
Who felt no pain
By the warfaring stranger
Who knew our names
Yeah, we were blessed.
12 comments:
I laughed out loud at this post, not for your pain but for you finishing his sentence when he said to bring a note, "From my mother?!" Classic. Sorry for your recent troubles, though.
Heh.
I have five novels at the Newmarket Public library hereabout and yet every year or so, I have to produce my driver's licence or my name and address on a billing envelope --to prove I am who I say I am.
BTW,
As I'd mentioned before, you look exactly like me thirty years back.
That is a good thing or a bad thing. :)
Once after many years away I tried to cash a check in my original home town bank. A person I didn't know waited on me and couldn't do it because I wasn't local. Then another bank employee said, that's Anna Bell Gramlich's son. I got my check cashed.
There are plenty of math jobs available for talented people on the west side. I have a room for you. Just sayin. W.W.
Hey Woody. You know we would miss him, but he certainly took one on the chin, and the way he's being treated !!! We couldn't
blame him if he wanted to leave the country about right now. Just sayin. Huck
W.W.,
It's never easy having your heart ripped out of your chest, knowing that you've got to spend your day with some of the foulest students in Michigan; yet, I'm expected to maintain the Status Quo per the courts. When my divorce is final I may just pull up stakes and leave. With the aid of the Macomb County Sherriff's boys, I was able to gain entrance to my home and retrieve my birth certificate. Maybe I'll leave the country. Thanks for the offer.
Caymen Islands a good place to live and teach.
Take a lesson from Corporate America. Don't pay anything. Switzerland is another. MW
Hey man, whatever happens next and whatever you decide, good luck!
All this sounds so strange! Why do you get driven out of your home just because you are getting a divorce?? I cannot understand a lot of things here! Why would a divorce make you have to start from scratch including retirement plans??? why do you lose your JOB because you are divorcing? And what about the lady? why does she get to stay at home ? Did the house belong to her?
Tello me where my blessings will come in...
JR-What is shit that u are driven out of a house that YOU made the payments on and splitting a retirement that YOU paid 100 percent of? It's too bad that after all these years there is not an amicable solution. So sorry for all of your unnessacary pain and the uinfairness of it all. NOT FAIR!
Jodi! Yikes! Is that what divorce means in America!
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