I am sure you have heard the old expression "You can not teach an old dog new tricks" well this may be true for an old dog but it is not so for an old girl. Of course who is to say at what age a person is old.
I became a widow at age fifty-six. I thought life was over, I was too old to start over and besides where on earth would I find a man to replace my Fred. Fred and I had been married for over thirty years. After a women is with a man that long you kind of become a part of one another and when one dies the other looses a great deal of his or in my case her life.
I sat by the window looking blindly out across the back yard and beyond where the fields and trees curve out of sight between the hills. Just beyond our back yard is an old Rail road track that has not been used in all the married years we have live here. Many a summer day I have walked those old tracks down to the trestle that stands like a lonely sentinel over a shallow creek.
I was thinking of all the things I have done and did alone for many years because my husband was a traveling salesman. He did right by us but so much of the time he was gone, a day , a week even some times for a month or two . It seemed I was always a lone. So why the hell do I miss him so much and why do I feel as if I can not get along with out him. I got along all those years and being childless made it even more lonely.
Tears fell like rain and my blouse became wet and darkened where the tears fell upon it. Shaking and my nose being all stuff up just mad everything seem much worse than it really was. But it was all part of getting over loosing a part of me.
I was not a crier, I was not one to fall apart under stress so I knew I had to get a hold of myself and go on about the business of life. Well that may sound like a good idea but it is a lot harder when it is you doing the crying and falling apart.
Something move out there and my little pea brain jumped as did my whole body. "Oh my; what is that?" the words never left my lips but were contained in my head. A big "A" frame thing was coming into sight out there on the old rail road tracks. Those tracks were not safe for anything bigger than a hand cart. But there it was a large Rail car being pushed along by some kind of small electric engine. Several men appeared like magic and were walking along side this thing making it stayed on the old tracks.
I walked out the back door and stood by the little path that I used to go down to the rail bed. A tall man looked up and smiled at me. I asked "What on earth are you men doing?"
He stepped away from the others and took several steps toward me. "We are with the salvage team that is going to reclaim the steel out of the old trestle." He said.
"About time that old thing is dangerous and some times kids play out on it." I said thoughtlessly.
"Several of us will need a place to live for the next four months. You wouldn't happen to have a coupe of rooms for rent would you?" He said. I thought I saw in his eyes a glimmer of brightness and a smile form on his handsome face. But he masked it very well.
I chocked and said "Well as a matter of fact I do have room for maybe two of you. If you're non-smokers and clean sober gentleman."
"Madam, speaking for myself I am both and my best friend is also. When would be a good time to come back and talk to you about your rooms for rent? He said looking over his shoulders as the frame was moving on down the line.
"About seven this evening." I called after him. His smile broadened and I felt a strange tightening in my stomach. I must not have eaten anything yet today.
The rest of the day seems to be a blur. However I did go down in the basement and check to see if the two day beds needed clean sheet and that there were plenty of clean towels in that little stand alone shower behind the house heating system. The toilet was clean and working just fine. Also that the basement door was unlocked. If I were going to rent out my basement I wanted these men to have there own entrance so they would not need to come through my house.
I was sitting in the kitchen when I saw two men approach the back door. I opened the back door even before they reached the steps. "Hello" I said.
"Good evening Madam Let me introduce myself. I am Danny Wheeler and this is my best friend Sam Stockton." A few nodes were exchanged and smiles were there. I told them I had two day beds in the basement and for them to go around to the side. The door was open and they were to take a look and if it suited them let me know. A few minutes later they returned and said it would be fine and we agreed on a rent.
I had tenants and I was now in the boarding house business with out the boarding end of it. I did not have to cook meals all I had to do was provide clean sheet and towels. They would eat down at the dinner and that was fine with me.
If they stopped for a drink they were to sleep out in the barn.
This all took place on a Friday and when my new boarders returned from the diner they went down stairs with out a word.
I had showered, slipped in to a pair of cotton PJ's with short legs and short sleeves as it was hot already and it was only early June.
I came down to the kitchen for a glass of ice tea to put next to my bed while I read myself to sleep. As I passed the cellar door I could hear the men talking as if I were in the room with them. This surprised me and after a quick investigation I found the voices were coming up through the laundry shut.
