Retirement
Tabitha is standing in the large bedroom, looking in her large mirror, stretching and turning like a model, even though she will be grey in just a very short time. Any time now, in fact, which makes her regret her hearty breakfast. Retirement, the dreaded stage of life for so many people. Retirement, which has been hanging over her and her Richard for a while now. She smiles at the mirror, and says to her image, “Never mind, dear, as long as you wear something suitable, something that goes with grey hair. Make sure you don’t look too washed out, and don’t look frumpy!”
She hears a hearty laugh behind her, and knows that Richard has heard every word of that… “You couldn’t look frumpy if you tried, my darling,” he whispers, hugging her, holding her tight. In the mirror she can see his face, looking a little sad. He sighs, and tries to smile at her in the mirror, making his face look all crooked. “I just wished I had time to get those final promotions… Suffering from Llama Flu was not helpful to my career as a doctor. On the other hand, there is now a new chef in the restaurant! I really got fed up with that old woman, Jalisa Key, working in the restaurant, ignoring all calls for retirement. So I had some words with her… Ha, she absolutely hated my guts in the end, but at least it worked! They have a new girl now, which is an improvement!”
They both laugh. Yes, there are many elderly people stuck in their jobs, refusing to retire, making it very hard for the younger generations to find spouses spontaneously. It has to be through arranged marriages, which is very complex. Tabitha sighs, they made some very careful plans for both their daughters, and she hopes and prays the arrangements will work out. Eva has a boyfriend, Paul, which she hopes to meet up with soon. They actually hope to meet without having a party, but Tabitha is not too sure about it. It is so difficult, and as all four of them will need to retire, the logistics are giving her a headache.
“Mum!! Mumm, where are you? Look, it’s here! It’s finally here! I can’t believe it…!” Eva’s loud voice can be heard through the entire house, and, thanks to the lattice windows, throughout most of Sims Mobile, no doubt…! Tabitha rushes out of the kitchen, to see what Eva has got, knowing almost for certain that it’s the Gems allocations… She is right, the Gems have arrived… Today, today will be the start of all the chaos, new roles, new jobs, new hobbies…new everything it seems, apart from us four, Tabitha thinks…There will be nothing new about us, all grey and bend and decidedly old!
That evening they talk about it and try to arrange everything. “It is just so involved,” groans Victoria, looking through their plans, permits, applications, schedules… The large dining table is covered with papers. “I don’t even know where to start. Who needs to be promoted sooner, rather than later? That is probably the most important factor. Then we can decide who will retire to facilitate those promotions.”
Tabitha sighs, her headache has definitely not improved, and Victoria speaking like some sort of official does nothing to help. Victoria looks round at the all, shuffles a few papers around to look at proposals and Marriage Arrangement letters. “Right, from what I can gather, Eva is hoping to meet Paul sooner rather than later. Eva, that makes you top priority.” Judging by the way she looks over Eva’s outfit, you can tell that Auntie Victoria feels that the promotion is not the only thing that deserves priority… “Of course, it means you can choose an outfit, and even have your hair done. Excellent, who else needs promoting now. Samuel?”
Samuel looks up from his phone, and shakes his head decidedly. “Nope, not me, dearest darling mother. I’ve made arrangements to marry Miriam, and she needs to be an adult first, which will be very soon, but not today. No rush, I’m happy to just hang around a little longer… Wouldn’t want the age gap to be any wider than necessary now, would I!” He grins at his mother, who pinches her lips a little, which means that she is very annoyed; Samuel Vince Mortina knows exactly how to wind up people, especially his mum. He know she hates the over-the-top endearments.
“So, that is you further down the list then,” his mother says, professional voice and face back in their places, “Esther, how about you? When will you meet your Viking?” She looks at Esther, who is busy on her phone. Honesty, that thing seems to be an extension of the girl’s hand, Victoria thinks, irritated, and a little smug, wondering why Tabitha and Richard have allowed it… Esther blushes at the mention of her Viking, Magnus.
“There will be a party, to meet up properly,” she says shyly, “but it won’t be for a while, I fear. The thing is, with so many friends around in Sims Mobile I’m hoping to meet him at somebody else’s party, even before we have ours…” She looks round, nervous, wondering if they will think her pushy, but all she can see is smiling faces.
“Let’s promote you too, then, dear, at least you could start a hobby or a job, and meet Magnus whenever you can. I really hope for you that it will be soon!” Esther’s name is added to the priority list. Victoria looks at her sister in law and cousin, and also at her husband. “Now to decide who will retire first…” she doesn’t quite know how to carry on, as it’s rather awful to suggest to somebody else to hop it, as her cheeky son once called it. “I…I am not sure if it matters who will accept their papers first, so, I suppose it depends on who is most prepared?” She ends up making it sound like a question. Tabitha bends over the papers, partly to hide the tears in her eyes, partly to look through them to see if they have overlooked something.
“Eva needs to meet Paul, that is very important,” she says, “so as long as there is somebody who is friends with Hadley or Albert, or even Paul, it should be alright I suppose? I really have no idea which way to work this out to be honest. I still don’t know if it is possible to meet up outside parties. I mean, being friends with Hadley, Paul’s mum, doesn’t mean enough really, as it doesn’t say she is friends with you. Sims Mobile Government doesn’t encourage meeting people outside parties. I really can’t see from these papers that it will matter.”
The room has gone very quiet, the only noise is the soft humming from the fridge in the corner. Esther’s phone vibrates. Of course. Victoria and Tabitha look at the other faces, Chris looks down, Richard looks up, rubbing his chin. In the end, Tabitha speaks up. “I think it ought to be Richard and I who will retire first. After all, it is our daughters who need to be promoted first. It is only right and proper that we should allow them to take our places. That way, you can still spend more time with Samuel Vince. We knew this time was coming,” she continues, her voice softer than ever, sounding different, tighter, thinner, as if it’s only just held onto by a lead, struggling to run away from her control. “We have been preparing ourselves, not just our belongings and plans, but we have prepared our hearts also. It’s no point stretching this out, Richard and I will retire, and our girls will take our places.”
You can actually feel the relief in the room. This could have been a very awkward moment; it could have caused so much hurt and upset; anger could have dominated the meeting. As it was, the meeting was very calm and smooth, thanks to Tabitha’s grasp of reality, and her ability to put others first. That evening, she hugs Richard very tight, and is glad that the darkness hides her tears, voice wobbling ever so slightly, and says, “When you were so ill…and I really thought I was going to lose you, you remember, at our wedding reception? Well, I sang. I sang at the microphone when there was nobody around, and I sang, ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’, and at the time I was so, so sad! I felt that I would like to live forever, or at least almost forever. I don’t feel like that anymore. We have been so blessed, and I know it’s time now to bring in new blessings, new life.”
She sighs, listening to Richard’s heartbeat, strong, steady, feels his arms around her, and all of a sudden a dark room is not enough to hide her tears any longer. He holds her tight whilst she cries; cries for all that she will miss out on, cries over missed opportunities, cries over myriads of memories made in this house, cries over memories forgotten over time. Other memories come in then, flooding her mind, and by doing so, they stem the floods of tears. Yes, there are so many happy memories, so many treasures in her heart, stored away, never to be forgotten. After a while she finds her face dry, and the corners of her mouth curving upwards.
The first soft chuckle comes, “Do you remember…?” Before they know it they are both laughing, and Tabitha finds her face wet again, this time with happy tears. She sighs contentedly, “You know, I’m alright about retirement, really. I know I will miss this house once we have to leave, but it will be lovely to spend more time together. We have been through so much, met so many amazing people, been to the best parties in Sims Mobile, and the greatest gift we have is each other. We will go into retirement together. The thing I’m excited about is the girls! I’m so pleased they are able to be promoted first, I just can’t wait to see what will happen!”
The deed is done, the papers are filled in, there is no way back… Richard and Tabitha hugged each other, and soon the household had gone through a change that made the two girls smile and dance with glee! Eva didn’t spend too much time on her appearance, much to Tabitha’s sadness, and Victoria’s annoyance… She did change her top though, and who knows, the rest might follow, Tabitha thinks. Esther on the other hand changed her outfit several times, she just can’t decide what to wear in case she meets her Viking, Magnus. She chooses a little dress, showing off too much leg, Richard grumbles. Esther argues that it’s fine, and anyway, what’s wrong with her legs…
There are growing pains, difficulties to overcome once the girls are promoted. Esther is pleased as punch when she finds that her Dad and uncle finished the Internet hobby just in time. In the hobby room the computer desk appears, and Esther is hooked! She loves social media, and is on different sites all day long, Llamatube being her favourite, as she loves to take selfies. She signs up for the internet hobby of course. She isn’t too worried about getting a job, “I want to talk with Magnus about that,” she says when her parents ask her. “I would love to work in the same area as him, like you two did. I like that, and anyway, I’m sure I prefer something with access to computers…Mind you, the office outfits for women is appalling, not sure if I can cope looking like that all day…What if people put pictures of me like that on Llamatube?”
Tabitha is pretty sure nobody will bother, but she doesn’t want to upset her daughter. It is clear that Esther is giddy with happiness and expectation, talking about Vikings, reading on the internet about Norse legends, even looking up free language learning sites online to learn Ancient Norse, but she can’t find anything that comes close, so that idea is dropped.
Eva on the other hand is not a happy bunny. She wasn’t the happiest smiliest girl to start with, but her mood has definitely nosedived. The reason is that meeting Paul is definitely more complex than they were hoping. She was convinced that if someone in the family was friends with Paul’s mum, they could then call Paul over at the same time. The problem is, nobody in the family is friends with Paul. When going to Paul’s house to meet his mum, it’s actually impossible to add Paul to your contacts. There goes the happy scheme…
Eva is inconsolable. Now she has to wait till Paul can throw a party. “That will be ages,” she wails, her nose red and drippy, “I was so sure we could do it! We even scoured the list of parties to see if we could quickly go to the same one. Nothing! Hundreds of parties, and not one in common! I hate it, it’s so unfair! What am I going to do all this time? I will have three traits by the time I marry him!” She sobs and sobs, louder and louder, until Tabitha steps in. It’s fine to be upset of course, but going into hysterics isn’t.
“I’m sure it will work out absolutely fine,” she says soothingly, “You said Paul could have a party very late Tuesday night. Well, I’m sure you could manage to quickly pop over and meet him. Also, we will all do our best as much as possible, keeping our eyes wide open, in case we spot him… Don’t give up hope just yet, dear, it will be fine. There will be a very good reason for it, there always is. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in this life without a very good reason. We might not know the reason now, but it will be there.”
Eva grunts, and shrugs her shoulders. “I can’t see any reason for this delay. We were so looking forward to meeting up, getting married…how on earth can there be a good reason for delaying this…this good thing? How do we ever know that there is a good thing to come out of bad? That just doesn’t make sense, I can’t see how that can be true.”
Tabitha hugs her daughter, feeling the stiffness, the anger, the disappointment hardening her muscles, making her tense, hurting not jut her heart, but her whole body. She kisses her daughter’s cheek, and says, “Well, once there was a well known old lady, who went through more than we would want to think about. She wrote a beautiful poem, one that your dad and I actually talked about late last night, when talking about our journey here, in Sims Mobile. This wonderful lady wrote this poem,
My life is but a weaving, Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colours He weaveth steadily.
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow; And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper And I the underside.
Not ’til the loom is silent, And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas, And reveal the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver In the pattern He has planned.
He knows, He loves, He cares; Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those Who leave the choice to Him.” (Corrie ten Boom)
Eva hugs her Mum, clinging to her a bit tighter, feeling herself relax, accept, mature. Retirement is a time for change, and a time for choice as well. Not just to choose jobs, hobbies, spouses, or even outfits; time to choose attitudes as well. She sighs, life is really complex…but good, and exciting too! After all, just one day, and Paul is able to throw a party…they will meet…and then…the future!