Sunday April 8 2019

Bobbie headed downstairs. She was thinking she could pick up a coffee and a snack in SPOKES. She met Trixie in the parking lot. “Hey Trixie, working on a Sunday; aren’t you dedicated.”

Trixie laughed. “Mostly it’s to get out of the house but I did want to do some research this morning. I’m amazed at well equities are performing this quarter.”

“Great, do you want to get a coffee before you start?”

“Sure.” Said Trixie joining her. “What’s new?”

Bobbie grinned and said. “Well to start with, Johnny is upstairs sleeping in my apartment.”

“No!” Said Trixie.

“Yup, I guess he’s been scrapping with Mitch and there is trouble in paradise.”

Trixi was stirring her coffee thoughtfully. “So, did you and Johnny…?”

“God No!” Apparently Mitch is really possessive. She didn’t want Johnny to get too close to her son and doesn’t like our friendship. We really are just friends”

Trixie shrugged. “That sucks. If someone wants to be with Johnny they have to accept he has friends. To be fair I think he does still carry a torch for you though. Lets get him a coffee and go razz him a bit.”

“No let him sleep he had an awful night”

“Too much wine?” Asked Trixie knowingly.

“More like too much pizza, he was sick from gluten. He was up half the night barfing and evacuating his system any way he could. I really had no idea. I actually think he was in tachycardia at one point”

“Wow!” said Trixie, “I guess we’d better let him sleep”

Bobbie looked at her watch. “I have shared all my news and I’d better get Mom and Linda to church, they’ll be waiting for me.”

Bobbie picked up her Mom and Linda and told them what happened to Johnny.

Her Mom explained. “Since he hadn’t been eating any gluten for a while, any small amount of resistance he ever had, is gone and he could (and did) have a strong reaction.”

“I have broth for him.”

Her mom told her to get some good yogourt and some bananas too.

“Johnny already told me that he was breaking up with Michelle and I’m not too happy that Johnny isn’t keeping the house.”

“He still owns it though Linda. He can’t kick Mitch, a single mom, out on the street.”

Her Linda nodded. “Johnny just has some big decisions to make and I’m sure he knows that.”

Bobbie enjoyed the service, noted that the minister was quite good looking and his parishioners flocked around him after the service. They headed to the grocery store and the ladies had coupons and flyers that they haggled with and eventually she dropped them off and drove back to the motel. Johnny was sitting at the kitchen island nursing a glass of water.

“It’s alive!” Said Bobbie, when she saw him.

“Ha ha you’re a hoot. Thanks though Bobbie. I know I was a mess and you clothed me and sheltered me and brought me water and medicine and a barf bucket. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

“I know, I’m such a Mom. Think nothing of it my dear. It was touch and go for a while but I’m glad you made it. How about I make us a soothing cup of tea and then maybe you can stomach a Banana and some yogourt?”

“I want to sit in your dark theatre room and listen to music on your 7.1 surround sound …and drink tea, Bobbie.”

“I’ll meet you in there you can stream music from my laptop, my receiver has blue-tooth.”

“You speak magic my dear, I will wait in the theatre with baited breath for the tea and tunes.”

Bobbie came in with the tea on a tray and the laptop under her arm and got things all set up. She put the music on low.

“So how do you feel?” she asked.

Johnny said. “I feel empty and a little spacey; like I can’t really concentrate and I have a sense of foreboding too.”

“Mom said you could have anxiety after a gluten reaction.”

“I feel so stupid for eating that pizza. I also feel so stupid for getting in a serious relationship so fast. I feel useless and I don’t know what to do next. I’ve hurt Michelle, Sid and my Aunt Linda.”

“Don’t spin out on me now Johnny! You just made some big life changes, you retired, sold your business, moved and you decided to end a serious relationship. That is a lot of adjusting to do. You need to build a new life for yourself.”

“Just like You Bobbie, You retired and moved and lost your husband.” He said thoughtfully.

“I guess so, I hadn’t thought of it that way but the motel has taken all my concentration and I’m still on that journey because it’s not finished yet. I’m adjusting to the changes in my life as I go. What do you picture doing Johnny?”

“I don’t know for sure. I’d like a small house with a little land, a garden and a few fruit trees, a big garage with a workshop and I could have a small business fixing up bicycles and small appliances or something; to keep stuff out of the land fill. Not too far out of the city so I can do a couple of music shows and be close to Aunty Linda and you, I guess. You’ll likely need some support with this Motel sometimes.”

“That sound so nice Johnny. What about your house? You own the house that Mitch is living in.”

“I know but I can’t kick her out, Sid is settling into school and everything.”

“Well, you should at least charge her a little rent so you’ll have something to live on. You can collect CPP and rent and that’s pretty good.”

Johnny said. “I’m glad I had good advice when I owned my business, I was careful to pay into CPP. Some self employed folks keep their income too low. I also have some RRSP’s and Trixie helped with some investments.”

“Well you can stay with me for a while Johnny. Our smaller hotel rooms with kitchenettes should be done soon and you could stay in one of those for the longer term. Then we could do a month to month rental and I’d charge reasonable rent.”

“Oh God Bobbie. I’ll start paying rent now, I hate feeling like a freeloader, I’ve done too much of that in my lifetime.”

“Nonsense!” said Bobbie, “For the next week or 2 you are my guest, you’ll have plenty of time to pay rent when the rooms are done.”

“Maybe I can be a guest that builds you a roof deck?”

“Yes. As far as anyone’s concerned, you are staying here to work on my roof deck.” Bobbie was thinking about what James said, predicting that Johnny would end it with Michelle. “You haven’t been a freeloader for 20 years”