Part 1
“John, how is it that two oldies like us can sit together on a yacht in the middle of a calm bay watching the sunset?”
John was dozing off but he awoke when he heard Kirsten’s voice and said, “I’m glad you didn’t know me before. I was pretty messed up.”
“What?” Kristen lifted her head up and looked in his face, just to make sure he wasn’t kidding.
“Helen had a rough time with advanced breast cancer, especially the chemo. Everything went wrong at once. After she passed away, I got laid off. I’m glad she didn’t have to go through that with me. Friends told me to get grief counseling and join a support group, but without a job and few prospects, I was depressed and didn’t want to socialize.
I sold the house and rented an apartment at Venice Beach and did a lot of walking. My kids were busy with their own lives. I knocked on my daughter’s door one evening while she was having a dinner party. She looked angry and annoyed and said in a low voice, ‘You can’t come in like this. You smell like dead fish!’ My son-in-law came to the door too, but he didn’t say a word. She closed the door and I heard her tell her guests that a beach bum was asking for money. I knew then how King Lear must have felt. I was wrong for assuming I’d be welcome, I should have called and made myself presentable. My son lives in Long Beach and he pretty much avoids me too. I should have spent more time with them when they were kids. I thought if I gave them things that they wanted, they’d understand the value of hard work and my love for them. Big mistake.” He shook his head and ran his hand over his hair.
Kristen held his hand. “They’ll come around; they always do. Just give them a little time. They’ll start their own family and see how hard it is sometimes.”
“I hope you’re right. What saved me was a childhood memory of a beach outing. I remembered seeing a man with a metal pole that had a flat dish-like thing attached and there was noise coming from it. He was swinging it slowly and rhythmically across the sand and he seemed relaxed and content. People on their beach towels asked if he had found anything. I remember that he said, ‘Just a few coins.’
He had been using a metal detector to find things he could convert to cash or claim a reward. I was curious so I researched metal detectors on the Internet…”
Kristin laughed, “You’re so thorough!”
“Well, I was an engineer, always focused on details.” he said smiling. “One of the links led me to an article about a rich widow who threw an unknown number of valuable coins from her husband’s collection into the ocean because she felt that money had ruined the couple’s joy. Her husband had been a businessman and she had seen too many friendships dissolve and too many partnerships collapse because of the quest for money. Even her children were jealous of each other and made her uncomfortable every time she bought something for herself