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He’d talk to Linda tonight. Though he wasn’t sure what he might say, he owed her, and himself, at least that much. He wasn’t sure of anything anymore, and that realization thrilled him with anticipation. He might try again with Linda, might someday rejoin Pamela, might change careers. The only thing that mattered was that the quarter century or so he had remaining would be his life, to live out as he chose and in his own best interests. Nothing took precedence over that: not work, not friendships, not relationships with women. Those were all components of his life, and valuable ones, but they did not define it or control it. That was up to him, and him alone.
The possibilities, Jeff knew, were endless.
Jeff, Replay by Ken Grimwood
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Jeff finished his eggs and bacon as the sun was coming up, scrubbed the dishes, and left the pan to soak. Usually he took a cup of coffee on the little porch of the steep-roofed white house, but this morning he was running late, and there was much to do.
He pulled a down jacket over his flannel shirt and stepped outside. Third week of May, but the air still had a bite to it; last frost of the year had come night before last. He nodded his respects to the rock pile where old man Smyth was buried, and strode over to one of the newly furrowed corn fields, all staked out and ready for planting. Smyth had worked this land alone, too, after he’d homesteaded it in the 1880s. Had fallen ill after some sort of accident, Jeff had been told, and nobody’d found his body for weeks. People who’d bought the place in the tax auction afterward had never planted a thing; hadn’t even kept the land, not once they’d found the small fortune in gold coins that Smyth had hidden in the Dutch oven. The old man had had some secrets of his own, it seemed.
Jeff dug the toe of his boot into the thick black topsoil where he’d be planting the first corn of the season this afternoon, the Sugar and Gold early variety. Good volcanic California soil it was, rich in minerals. He had nothing but contempt for the family that, so long ago, had let it lie fallow, had taken Sylvester Smyth’s gold and departed The Cove in search of unearned joys and comforts. Land like this demanded to be tilled, and the fresh food it would yield in return held far greater value than any coins.
That was the contract, the bargain struck between man and earth ten thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. To abandon good land, Jeff believed, was to break an ancient and almost holy bond.
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Everything he’d accomplished had been erased: his financial empire, the home in Dutchess County … but most devastating of all, he had lost his child. Gretchen, with her gangly almost-woman manner and her intelligent, loving eyes, had been rendered nonexistent. Dead, or worse. In this reality she had simply never been.
For the first time in his long, broken life he fully understood Lear’s lament over Cordelia:
… thoul’t come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never.
Jeff, in Replay by Ken Grimwood
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koaorquia:
Best Friends
In life, you experience love. Love that is pure and innocent. Love that isn’t corrupted by sexual desires or jealousy, but love that last’s forever. Through thick and thin, there will always be one person to stand by your side; your best friend.
A best friend is someone who’s stands ready to pick you up even before you’ve fallen down. Someone who enjoys putting up with the random shit you do and even joins in. A best friend is someone who you can argue with and never have to say sorry to. They’re someone that knows you inside and out and know what kind of intentions you have. A best friend is your second you. Someone who is an extra pair of eyes and ears to always watch and have your back. A best friend is going to be there to tell you when you’re acting up; when you’re not being you and when you’re just plain being stupid. But most of all, a best friend is gonna be that person that pushes you to be you; that pushes you to love you, and that will always be by your side if ever you get side tracked. That person to lean on, that’s a best friend.
(via iamwenyih)
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Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more ‘luck’ you might have.
Ed Bradley
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Sweet Revenge
Two brawny men came to Martha’s house to install some new floor covering in the kitchen. Once they had moved the stove and refrigerator out of the way, it was not long before the job was done.
As they were getting ready to leave, Martha asked them to put the heavy appliances back in place.
The two men demanded $45 for this service, stating it was not in their contract.
Martha had no choice but to pay them.
As soon as they left, however, the doorbell rang. It was the two men. They asked Martha to move her car which was blocking their van.
She agreed to do so… for a fee of $45.
Tagged:
Joke,
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Empty
I feel like a vital part of me was torn out today…
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Today, I lost the best friend that I apparently never had.
Saddest Me
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These are not the carbs you’re looking for… (Taken with Instagram at Tulsa City Hall)
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Oh dear sweet jeebus… this is awesome…
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So I was told by braincandi that this is the problem with the world today… the smart people spend their time doing things like this rather than curing cancer…
Hilarious… but where’s my time machine!? (Source: 7u7, via memewhore)
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 Tuesday is the new Sunday and I am the Reverend. Thank you for your sacrificial cheese. |
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