Freedom

                                                                               by Nicho

            Les was looking back on his life.  It had been relatively uneventful – no World Wars in which to be a hero, no huge uprisings to take part in – in fact Les had pretty much kept his head down, stayed in his lane and worked hard.

           Not that it had done him much good. Yes, he’d had a steady, but hard, job for over 40 years, and yes, it paid the bills, just about. Yes, it had got his kids through school and college and into their own jobs. He’d even managed, along with his wife’s wage – they’d have never managed without her pittance from the government office in which she worked – to buy a modest house.

           They’d been very thrifty – no posh foreign holidays for them – just Yorkshire or Scotland once every other year and their cars had always been five years old at least when they acquired them.

            So yes, he’d had a hard but fruitful life, his two sons becoming Police Officers and his daughter a nurse.

             He’d had few notable times – the best ones just in that couple of years when his eldest son produced a baby daughter and his other son a son of his own. This had been happiest time of Les’s life, becoming Granddad or ‘BamBam’, as the littlest called him

             Les had been besotted with both of his grandbabies and he had been in his element when asked would he and Dierdre, look after the babies, a couple of days a week whilst Mummy went back to work.   It had been great fun! Les and Deirdre had taken some days out of their work week and they managed.

           But ,eventually, the babies grew and had to go to school, and they developed and grew into beautiful children and, later, teenagers.

            Still Les worked hard even though it was getting harder, and he looked forward to his retirement when he could relax and take things easy, looking after his, now, frail wife, and do a bit of gardening.

            He had been heartbroken when his Deirdre had passed away. She had been the love of his life, and he wasn't sure he wanted to go on without her.

            She had been his rock - she had organized everything - so much so that when she went - he didn't need to do a thing about the bills - they were all - except the food shopping - on direct debits.  She'd been shrewd, his Deirdre, and had also, unbeknownst to him, arranged the finances so that if one of them popped their clogs, the mortgage would be paid off. That definitely wouldn't have crossed HIS mind - nor would he have known how to do it, if it had.

        A further blow had come two weeks previously. Their little dog, a Bichon Frise called MoMo had gone downhill quickly with age-related COPD - he had been approaching his 16th birthday so had had a great life and a very good run. Sadly, that took none of the sting away from losing the little mutt. Les believed MoMo missed his Mum too much and it had broken his heart when she had died.

        Their children and grandchildren no longer lived on the Wirral and although they'd each asked Les to come to live with them, it was too much upheaval for him - he was used to grey old Wirral. He had great views over the Dee - he needed no more. Besides, he felt closer to D in their home.

        The arthritis and heart trouble Les had now, were very debilitating, so the retirement they'd dreamt of together was not ever going to happen. He had wanted to go hiking in the hills of Scotland and Yorkshire. He could hardly drive there now.  He wished again that he could have gone with his beloved.  It's not like either of them were that old - only in their 60's and he had read that 60 was the new 50!  He felt more like 80, with his aches, pains and hospital visits where the doctors had insinuated that his working life at the docks had paid no small part in his poor health now.  That did not surprise him - the work had been hard and hazardous. There had been spills and accidents - hushed up of course and a few bob bunged here and there -so no compo was going to be fought for.  He'd already decided, years ago, that he was not going into any nursing homes - the government  were not getting his house - he’d take it down brick by brick before that happened.

            The discomfort he'd been in recently had been more severe than usual but, as always, he soldiered on.

            The dishes were done, the living room Hoovered and tidy, Les climbed the staircase painfully and straightened the, slightly, rumpled bedclothes before getting showered and shaved and dressed in his best suit and tie.

        Deirdre's full-length mirror showed a ,still, handsome man of later years but with pain etched across his high cheekbones and around his once twinkling blue eyes.

        Les sat down on the side of the bed and reached into his bedside drawer where he kept his meds. He always remembered his night-time meds, so it made sense to keep them there. His daytime ones he kept downstairs by his chair and set his alarm for the same time every day to remind him to take them - he'd forget otherwise, without his wife to remind him.

        Taking a sip of water from the nightstand carafe, he downed the tabs all in one go with the practiced movement of a long-time medicated person. and threw the empty bubble-packs and boxes into the bin on the back of the door. That was Deirdre's idea - a cotton tote on the door-handle - stopped MoMo foraging through bins looking for tissues.

         Feeling a bit unsteady and still tired from the night's bad sleep, he lay down on top of the covers and picked up the photo of him, Deirdre and MoMo from the nightstand and hugged it to his chest.

        "I miss you so much my love and I want so much to see you and MoMo and our other dogs and the baby we lost the first time, but I will be there soon, please hang about for me - you know I've always been slow on the uptake..." 

        "Oh, you haven't got any better with age, have you...?" his Deirdre's voice came to him quite clearly but he still double-checked. "Is that you D?"

        "Who else would bother with a daft old bugger like you?" she answered with a giggle.

         Les opened his eyes, or so he thought - he was no longer sure what was happening. His beautiful Deirdre was in front of him! Not totally clear but good enough to know her.           

        “You waited!" he slurred, no longer able to control his mouth properly.       

        "Of course I did - where would I go without my rudder?"

            Les looked again and swore he could see - in the mist round D's feet, their little dog. "Is that MoMo?"

            "Yes, and the others are waiting patiently at the Bridge - they can't cross until we get there. You've kept us waiting long enough. Come on now slowcoach!"

            It was then Les realized and he rose from his bed, there was no pain. None! By gum those painkillers had really worked this time!

            Deirdre got hold of his hand "Come on you old duffer - I've been waiting for you, and I wanna get on with the rest of eternity now - we're free! No more work, no more anything unless we will it. We have an adventure to go on now and I won't go on it without you.”

        The pair along with their happy, yappy little dog, walked straight out into the ether, off to the unknown, but it didn't matter because they were together, and they were free!

                                                                    ~~~~~~~~