What’s Next
It’s funny, the middle of the month often makes me take stock and think about the future. I dunno why. Maybe it’s some childhood trauma? My life, half still to come. Half over. Maybe it is just a sign of a good education, whatever? I don’t know? There I was over my morning coffee thinking about what lay ahead. Half glass full.
What am I going to do?
I’d checked over my finances and you know. Not so many luxuries but then I’m not really the luxuries kind of guy. I am always thinking about the future though, it’s a shame we can’t just live in the here and now and let the future be the future. My super account will look pretty sick when I get to require. That’s sick good, not sick bad.
Am I being ridiculous?
And just as I had that thought, my phone rang. You know, I spend a lot of my time telling anyone who will listen that I don’t believe in such things, and I don’t, however...
Amanda was on the phone, it was Aunt Tabitha, she had just croaked it. Apparently, she was limbo dancing in Trinidad with her “friend” Marshall and they’d just taken their plane back up the coast for dinner somewhere and it crashed, no survivors.
Poor old Tabitha. I always liked her. She used to sneak me splifs when I was a teenager, me and Daniel.
“Ah, that’s a shame,” I said. “I liked Tabitha.”
“You know you are the beneficiary of her will?”
“Really?” That got my attention. “I thought you were?”
“No, Tabitha changed her will when she visited last time, something about me and your father no longer needing any of her money.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. You didn’t tell...”
“Well, we don’t, its true,” said Amanda. “We’re no longer building an asset base off which to raise a family, we’re in retirement, darling, all of our finances are locked down. It is better you two have it. Make something out of it.”
“Really?”
“It is you and Daniel, now.”
“Really?”
“Poor Tabitha,” said Amanda, “I’m so going to miss her, what a darling, she was such a kind, wise old girl, in a time when we could do with more like Tabitha, and not less…””
Ashamedly, I had stopped listening. My financial work sheet in my head had just rebooted and I was miles away trying to remember what old Tabitha had in the way of assets.
“Are you listening? Darling?”
“Good old Tabitha.”
“I still have lunch with her the first Thursday of every month…”
“How much did the old girl have?”
“I shall miss her…” said Amanda. She drew in breath, as if to say, I had raised him better than that, kind of suck in of breath. Mother’s they see all of the subtext, all of the time. Intuition, I believe it is called. “Joshua,” she said with such palatable disappointment, like all the air being expelled from a balloon.
I wasn’t having her nonsense. “How much, Amanda?”
Sharp inhale, rather deeper than the last, and in a whisper, “Not inconsequential, Josh my boy.”
Then I watched porn, unashamedly stoned, for the rest of the day, no guilt. There was a kind of added luxury to the whole thing, which was not short on luxury to begin… with.
What am I going to do?
I’d checked over my finances and you know. Not so many luxuries but then I’m not really the luxuries kind of guy. I am always thinking about the future though, it’s a shame we can’t just live in the here and now and let the future be the future. My super account will look pretty sick when I get to require. That’s sick good, not sick bad.
Am I being ridiculous?
And just as I had that thought, my phone rang. You know, I spend a lot of my time telling anyone who will listen that I don’t believe in such things, and I don’t, however...
Amanda was on the phone, it was Aunt Tabitha, she had just croaked it. Apparently, she was limbo dancing in Trinidad with her “friend” Marshall and they’d just taken their plane back up the coast for dinner somewhere and it crashed, no survivors.
Poor old Tabitha. I always liked her. She used to sneak me splifs when I was a teenager, me and Daniel.
“Ah, that’s a shame,” I said. “I liked Tabitha.”
“You know you are the beneficiary of her will?”
“Really?” That got my attention. “I thought you were?”
“No, Tabitha changed her will when she visited last time, something about me and your father no longer needing any of her money.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. You didn’t tell...”
“Well, we don’t, its true,” said Amanda. “We’re no longer building an asset base off which to raise a family, we’re in retirement, darling, all of our finances are locked down. It is better you two have it. Make something out of it.”
“Really?”
“It is you and Daniel, now.”
“Really?”
“Poor Tabitha,” said Amanda, “I’m so going to miss her, what a darling, she was such a kind, wise old girl, in a time when we could do with more like Tabitha, and not less…””
Ashamedly, I had stopped listening. My financial work sheet in my head had just rebooted and I was miles away trying to remember what old Tabitha had in the way of assets.
“Are you listening? Darling?”
“Good old Tabitha.”
“I still have lunch with her the first Thursday of every month…”
“How much did the old girl have?”
“I shall miss her…” said Amanda. She drew in breath, as if to say, I had raised him better than that, kind of suck in of breath. Mother’s they see all of the subtext, all of the time. Intuition, I believe it is called. “Joshua,” she said with such palatable disappointment, like all the air being expelled from a balloon.
I wasn’t having her nonsense. “How much, Amanda?”
Sharp inhale, rather deeper than the last, and in a whisper, “Not inconsequential, Josh my boy.”
Then I watched porn, unashamedly stoned, for the rest of the day, no guilt. There was a kind of added luxury to the whole thing, which was not short on luxury to begin… with.
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