That Demon, Work
by Peter L Oughton
Simon was a
driven man.
Work. That’s all he did!
As a child, money was tight. He ached to do
better than his parents.
So, he knuckled down, discovered a talent for
making money, married and produced two lovely
children.
Simon’s desire for money overlooked one
thing – his family rarely saw him. He was
always off doing deals, and back late, or not at
all for several days.
Time passed and the children were now at
university, leaving Mary, Simon’s wife, in a
wilderness of loneliness. Simon was always the
bread-winner, so Mary had no work skills on which
to fall back.
One morning, she looked in a mirror, saw the
random grey hairs and the start of lines and
wrinkles in her face and thought, “How is
this a life? All this money, but barely a
marriage.”
Late that evening, when Simon arrived home, Mary
confronted him. She explained how lonely she was,
how it hardly felt as though she had a marriage
and how she might just as well press for a
lucrative divorce.
For probably the first time in years, Simon
actually looked at his wife, saw her lovely, but
no longer young, face and left the room briefly.
When he returned, he said, “Look, I’m
tired and have to be up early tomorrow for a
business trip. I’ll be away for a few days.
Let’s continue this conversation when I
return.”
“Typical!”shouted Mary. “Shut me
up and hope that it blows over. Well, it won’t!”
Simon left early the next morning and returned a
few days later, announcing that he was exhausted,
had another meeting in the morning and was off to
bed. That night, a furious Mary slept in her son’s
vacated bedroom!
At around 10 o’clock the next morning, Mary
wandered into the marital bedroom. Simon was
still in bed!
“What about this morning’s meeting?”
she enquired.
“Feeling a little odd,” came the reply,
“but please join me.”
“Why?” she asked sharply.
“Because my meeting is with you,” said
Simon. “Join me - I will explain.”
Mary, intrigued, climbed into bed.
“I have something to tell you,” he said.
Mary winced - what now?
“I have arranged to sell my business,”
he announced. “To a rival whom I’ve
known for years. He’s delighted to have me
just as a friend, not a competitor. That’s
where I’ve been for the last few days -
sorting out the details and the paperwork.”
“But why?” breathed Mary.
“Because I would rather lose my business
than lose you,” he replied. “After my
poor childhood, I thought all that mattered was
making pots of money. How wrong I was.”
“Are you sure about this?” whispered
Mary.
“Never been surer about anything,” he
replied. “We’ll have enough money to do
pretty much what we want, whenever we want, and together,
but I’ll need your help to adjust to my new
lifestyle.”
“Well,” chuckled Mary, rolling on top
of him, “I’ll see what I can do.”
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