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The Visit
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TITLE (EDIT)
The Visit |
DESCRIPTION
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[1,497 words] |
AUTHOR
J D Hoff Hoff |
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
43 year old with a passion for animal welfare.
[November 2007] |
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (2)
Opal (Poetry) Contemplations of Euthanasia [66 words]
Window Of Opportunity--A New Beginning (Short Stories) A story of friendship [1,982 words]
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The Visit
J D Hoff Hoff
The visitor
Knock,Knock
Robert, an older Gentleman starts to rise from his chair, and then gives a shout. “The doors open, come on in” he yells out. The front door, slowly opens and in walks a younger woman, watching her feet with every tiny step as she looks around, being careful to not trip over anything. The younger woman introduces herself. Hi Robert, My name is Gloria and I was sent over to check on you. We noticed that you haven’t been coming in to the clinic for the past few months and we just wanted to make sure that everything is going OK. Robert drops his head a bit and a tiny little smile creeps out from between his lips.
He looks up at Gloria and asks her how she feels about her life. Gloria gives Robert a little grin back and says, “My life is going pretty good right now. I was just promoted at my job, I have a new car and am in the process of buying a new home.” Robert lets his little grin sneak out again and says, “but are you happy?” Well Gloria looks around and wonders to herself. Why is this man, who is sitting in an old decrepit old home asking me about happiness in my life. I have just told him about my new car, my promotion at work and the new home I am buying. Isn’t that enough? Gloria sees that this conversation needs new direction and puts the focus back on Robert. So Robert, how are things going with you? Gloria asks. Robert tells Gloria that he wished he had more money, but other than that, his life was filled daily with the miracle of happiness. Gloria is again astounded. How can Robert be so happy? From Gloria’s perspective, She sees an old man living in a dump with no friends and not much interest in getting out to find any. Gloria and her curiosity meet, so she asks Robert about the miracles in his life.
Robert’s grin again appears and then quickly goes into a frown as he straightens himself in his chair. He asks Gloria to look around and then tell him what she sees. Gloria scans the room and looks back at Robert and asks him what she is supposed to see.
Robert says, do you not see anything of miraculous importance in this room. Do you not see a room filled with hope for the future when before nothing was seen but abandonment? Gloria is starting to worry about Robert now and is thinking that some sort of intervention may be needed for Robert’s mental health. She asks Robert to show her what it is that he sees as so special. Robert’s head drops and he gives a little nod. His grin is now completely gone and frustration fills his face. Gloria notices a tiny teardrop as it slowly creeps down Robert’s cheek. Gloria says, Robert, it’s OK. We have a host of services available and I’m sure we can get your life back on track. I’m sure everything is not as hopeless as it seems to you right now. Robert looks up at Gloria and says, but you have just shown me that everything is just as I see it. A world full of love that was lost in the blink of an eye. A soul, that mourns for the days of the past. A body that once ran and can now only barely walk. A woman that sees only with her eyes, not once looking into her Heart. Gloria tries once again to console Robert and pleads with him to at least come into the clinic to talk with someone. Robert agrees, but only if Gloria will sit down and listen with her heart for a few minutes. Gloria reluctantly sits on the dusty old couch and looks over at Robert, waiting to hear his words.
Robert slides over to the left, as far as he can in his chair and then slowly stands up.
Robert walks over to the small shelf that stands in the corner and picks up a book.
He hands it to Gloria and tells her to look through the book and then tell him what she sees. Robert then goes back over to his chair and sits on the edge of the seat, balancing himself between cushion and floor. As Gloria flips through the pages with a puzzled look on her face, Robert watches as he sits there and wonders if she will understand.
A few minutes later, Gloria looks up at Robert and asks him what is so special about the book. Robert feels behind him to pick something up and hands it to Gloria as she pulls back and away, afraid that it will muss up her pretty black suit. He lays it in Gloria’s lap and says do you understand yet? From the look on Gloria’s face, Robert knows that she still doesn’t make the connection. Robert again reaches behind him, carefully lifting another object, this time he lays it against her side. He again asks her, do you understand? The look on Gloria’s face told Robert that she just couldn’t comprehend the meaning of the objects. Once again, Robert feels behind him and lays a third object at Gloria’s feet. Gloria’s frustrated look has now turned into the look of curiousness at the old mans actions. Robert says to Gloria, I’d like you to meet Sally, Gretchen and Papaw. They each have their own story to tell. Sally came to me because the world full of love that she used to share with her family had one day vanished in the blink of an eye, because she just had too many medical problems for the family to deal with. Gretchen is here because of the new baby. She now mourns the days of the past when she used to roll around in the floor with the soon to be Father that treasured his every moment with her. That guy lying at your feet is Papaw. He used to go out every morning and run with his human Dad. Now that old age and arthritis has set in, he doesn’t move so quickly and was no longer of any value to such an athletic family, but doesn’t he make the most perfect foot warmer. When you looked through my book, all you saw were a bunch of pictures with dates under them. When I look through that book, I see the lost souls that were discarded like the daily trash, but more than that, I see the miracles that I was so very proud to play a part in. You see, I am a foster Dad. I am one of those people that take in the lost, scared, helpless and abandoned animals that some of you regard as a simple piece of property, worth no more than yesterdays newspaper. I am one of those people that are left to deal with your lack of responsibility for “life”. When you came in here, you looked around at all of the toys strewn across the floor of mismatched tiles. You saw the stuffing that was falling out of the cushions and you saw a lonely old man sitting in a chair wasting his life away. When you saw the tear fall across my cheek, you thought that I was feeling bad about my own life. That tear was actually for you. I truly feel sorry for the emptiness that must be in your own Heart. You see me as needing help because my life is so different than yours. I see my life as being one of the richest on Earth, filled with the purest form of love, Unconditional. My way of life may look poor to those who put so much energy into their own inanimate possessions, but let me tell you, when a life that was at Deaths door yesterday jumps up in my lap, only to give me a big slobbery lick across my face. I know why I am here. My pockets may be empty. My house may be a mess, but my Heart and memories are filled with the shiniest of treasures. I’d like to continue our conversation, but right now I am needed elsewhere. Shortly before you arrived, a family called me to tell me about their beloved Spartacus. The Dad got a new job in Virginia and they just don’t think it would be fair to Spartacus to put him through the move across two state lines and then adjusting to the new house. Spartacus will come and visit with me for a while. The little Boy and Girl that he spent the last twelve years with drinking tea and playing toy soldiers with will be so much happier with him out of the way. Spartacus, I suspect will sleep lightly tonight, thinking about his little girl and boy, while I quietly shed another tear.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2007 J D Hoff Hoff |
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
November 2007 |
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
1611
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