LITMIR.BIZ

      Sunday morning Charlie slept in until around 10, showered, dressed and went grocery shopping. When he returned from the supermarket he spent some time organizing the house, doing his laundry, and then went out for lunch. He ran into Tony Mazza at the sandwich shop. “Hey Charlie, what happened to you last night. You said you would catch up to the group and just disappeared. You fall asleep or what?”

      “No, Tony, I just went out for a while. I drove around and wound up going up to Philly.”

      “You got something going in Philly, Charlie? You hittin’ the discos looking for snatch or somethin’?”

      Charlie laughed “C’mon Tony, get your mind out of the gutter. I was just in the mood to drive around. You know I can’t deal with that singles hustle. You see some available broad and the first thing she says is ‘What’s your sign?’ Jesus! The next day you are in a motel with her and she wants to go for breakfast and says she wants to see you again. She asks ‘Was it good for you?’ and you have to say yes, even it was the worst you ever had! No, Tony, I was not doing the singles scene. Just relaxing, that’s all.”

      “Jesus – first guy I ever saw drive up to Philly to relax! You’re a real trip Charlie.” They both laughed.

      After lunch with Tony, Charlie drove out to the cemetery to visit his parents’ gravesite. As usual, he sat on the grass and talked to the headstones. “Mom, Dad, the woman I met is really a wonderful person. We had dinner again last night. She is really a beautiful, warm person. I think I am getting serious about her.” Charlie sat at the gravesite in silent meditation. He said a prayer for his parents and just sat there for a while thinking about his youth, his parents at home, the day his father died, his mother’s illness and her sadness after his father passed away. Every time he came home on furlough he could see that she had wasted away further and it hurt him to see her alone. She would never have thought of marrying again. Her life with her husband had filled her completely and no one would be able to occupy that space.

      Charlie’s mother had not been terribly fond of Mary Jo. She commented once that she thought Mary Jo a bit too ambitious and demanding for her own good. But she was Charlie’s wife and that meant she would respect Charlie’s choice and say no more. Charlie would either handle Mary Jo or he would not. Charlie said another prayer and got up to return to his car and drive home.

      When he got home he changed into a pair of shorts, gym shoes, and a cut-off sweat shirt. He got a basketball from the closet and walked down to the park on his street to shoot some baskets. His mind was on Gina and last night’s kiss and he didn’t want to sit around the house. He got into a short pick-up game with some other guys on the court and that temporarily took his mind off Gina. He worked up a good sweat.

      After the game which ended as the sun was going down, he walked back home, showered, and then fixed some dinner. Since getting divorced Charlie decided to learn to cook, at least some rudimentary stuff. He quickly grew tired of going out to local restaurants where the locals would look at him with a mix of pity and anger at Mary Jo. He didn’t need that. Besides, constantly eating in restaurants and sandwich shops was both expensive and hard on the waistline. He found that he was having to work out more often and harder to keep from loosening his belt a notch or two. He had purchased a mini-oven and he could fix up a roast chicken breast wrapped in aluminum foil that left him with no pots or pans to clean. He cooked up the chicken breast with a pat of butter and a bay leaf. It came out tasty and healthy. He would fix a side dish of rice in a microwaveable package and he had a dinner. No fuss, no mess – just the way a bachelor likes it.

      As he ate, his mind wandered again back to Gina. He had not realized before meeting her just how alone he had been since Mary Jo left. His softball games and bowling league activities always ended with him going home alone while the rest of the guys went back to wives and kids. The guys thought he had the perfect life. “Ain’t you the lucky guy, Charlie. I gotta go home to hear the wife complain that I am never home and to bitch about how dirty my uniform is and that she will have to wash it. You’re free, man. You can do whatever you damned well please – throw your socks around the room, drop your pants wherever you feel like, open a beer, belch, fart, do whatever you want!”

      Charlie laughed at their comments. “You think I live in a pigpen, guys? At least you have someone to wash your uniform. I have to wash my own or take it to the laundry. There’s no one at home to even complain about me. And I don’t toss my socks around the room either! I don’t think belching and farting is much compensation for coming home to an empty house!”

      The group would go silent when Charlie reminded them that the life of a bachelor in a small town full of married couples was a bit empty.

      One of them would try to break the silence by saying, “Yeah, but what about the broads, Charlie? You can go out every night with a different one. We have to look at the same old face.”

      “I got into that singles thing after Mary Jo left, but I can tell you that it’s not what you guys fantasize it to be. You go to some bar, meet somebody else on the make, go to a motel, wake up with a hangover, and look at some stranger who doesn’t look anything like she did the night before. Then there is this silence as you try to figure out what to do next. She’s gotta leave and so do you. Maybe you drive her back to her car. Then you don’t know if you are supposed to kiss her goodbye or pay her! She feels obliged to say she’d like to see you again, even if she can no longer stand even looking at you. Most of the time you don’t even remember if you enjoyed the sex or not. It’s mostly mechanical – human hydraulics. You pump her, she pumps you. You fall asleep and wake up with bad breath and a stranger. A bachelor’s life ain’t what it’s cracked up to be guys.”

      “Well, why don’t you hook up with a local broad, Charlie?”

      “That’s easy enough to answer. What do you guys think would happen if I shacked up with a local woman? The next day the whole town would know about it. I don’t want to date some woman who is going to be telling me what a nasty break I got from Mary Jo. I don’t want to be sharing my feelings with the whole town and you know that’s what would happen.”

      Charlie broke out of his reverie, finished his

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