The Grandfather Clock Read Online Free

least I didn’t
propose to her. And I knew she was a train wreck, Mikey. Or is it
‘Michael?’”
    My family always called me Mikey, but
I’d gone by Michael since I started college. Mostly because it was
written in construction paper on my dorm room door.
    “ So, what’s the plan? Get
the storage unit cleaned out, drive the white whale back to
Florida?”
    “ Yeah. I guess that’s a
start. I want to quit my job, but I don’t really have a plan. I
have grandma’s money. Not much else.”
    “ I thought you bankers
were rolling in it.”
    “ Not quite,” I
said.
    “ Well, come over tonight.
Sara’s making ribs. She’s excited to see you. With the twins we
haven’t gotten out much. The key to the storage unit is at the
house. Come over early. We’ll eat at 6:00.”
     
    Vince had a modest, ranch house, but
with lots of space, in the Tustin foothills. I kept expecting Kevin
Arnold to walk down the street in his New York Jets jacket. Vince
had been in the tiling business since high school, and he’d spun
off on his own. He now had four separate crews working for him. His
floors were beautiful, to say the least.
    Sara had lost the baby weight, and
little Vince Junior and Jessica were as cute as advertised. Sara
made dinner and I fed pureed carrots to both kids while Vince
showed me pictures of his latest tiling jobs. We each hauled a kid
outside and he showed me some stones he’d laid, as practice for an
upcoming bid for Disney.
    “ You talked to Mom
lately?” I asked, sipping a cold Sierra Nevada.
    “ I talked to Dad. Not
Mom,” he said.
    “ Same here,” I
said.
    “ Yeah. She was good at
Fourth of July though,” Vince said. “Better anyway. You should stop
by on your way back. It’s little out of the way, up to I-40, but
it’s a good chance.”
    “ I’ll do that.”
    “ She’ll be glad about
Christie too,” Vince smiled.
    “ Jesus, you all make her
out to be horrible,” I laughed.
    “ No, no. Sorry. Just not
right for you. You’re too easy going. She made you stressed
out.”
    “ You’re right,” I said. “I
realized that I was becoming, I don’t know, negative. I felt
hopeless. Everything started to bother me, but I didn’t have the
energy to say anything. She was in her own world, and I didn’t dare
enter. I was waiting for an excuse to leave. I guess I took it. I’m
just glad it’s over.”
    “ Let it all out,
bro.”
    “ And she was so
competitive. Always trying to impress people, to the point of
making them uncomfortable.”
    “ Sara always said Christie
would walk around and look at our stuff, and then say how she was
getting one, but better.”
    I chuckled. “I know exactly what you
mean. Half the shit she said to other people wasn’t true. We’d be
at dinner and she’d tell someone about getting a new TV or some
random thing and I’d think, well now we either have to go buy one,
or never have these people over at our place.”
    “ Insecure,” Vince
said.
    “ Whatever. Again, thanks
for saying something before I did something dumb like get engaged,”
I said. “Oh wait.”
    “ Man, how much did you
spend on that ring?”
    “ $3,000,” I
said.
    “ Not bad.”
    “ Not bad,” I nodded. “Not
good either.”
    “ What the hell are you
going to do with that huge clock? You probably don’t have a place
to live when you get back.”
    “ Minor issue,” I
mumbled.
    “ I don’t know how you do
it.”
    “ Do what?” I
asked.
    “ Fly by the seat of your
pants. First, it was when you went off to Florida for college. Then
you move in with Christie. Now, you’re off to the next thing. I
don’t know,” Vince shook his head, grinning, “What’s your
goal?”
    “ My goal?” That was a good
question.
    “ Yeah. What do you want in
life?”
    I rubbed my forehead. “I know what I
don’t want.”
    “ There’s a start. What
don’t you want?”
    “ I don’t want to work at
some meaningless job and go home each night to a colorless gray
existence.”
    Vince’s