Rules of Escape

Chapter 17 - Jesse

Jesse looks at his new blood pressure monitor with disgust. Again, it suggests his blood pressure is high. Jesse takes slow, deep breathes. He should have bought the more expensive monitor.

Looking at his once impressive clothes hanging in his closet, does not make him feel better. Why do clothes shrink vertically and expand horizontally? Jesse chooses a sweat suit and heads to his car. He has booked the morning off to take his grandpa to the summer cottage.

Collecting his grandpa from the retirement home is an exercise in patience. Every single movement seems to happen in painfully slow motion. Now, finally on the highway, Jesse breathes a sigh of relief. It is a gorgeous spring day. He will have time to look at the house briefly and return Grandpa in the early afternoon.

"Do you want the top down, Grandpa?" Jesse asks.

"Why? So I can lose the last few hairs on my head?"

Jesse laughs uncertainly.

"Put the top down," Joe says.

The top rolls back smooth as silk. If Jesse doesn't impress his clients, his car never fails to impress them.

"There're too many gadgets on your dashboard. How do you turn on the radio?"

Jesse pushes a small button and a screen lights up. "Just tap the type of music you want. It's touch screen."

"I can't see a damn thing on that screen. It's too dark."

Jesse pushes another button, adjusting the brightness of the screen. "Better?"

"I can't read the goddamn words. Where're my glasses?" Joe asks, carefully searching each his pockets. Pockets in his shirt. Pockets in his pants. Pockets in his jacket.

"What station do you want?"

"I don't know. Any damn station. A rock station. Something lively."

Jesse pushes a few buttons on the screen.

"What's that noise? That's not rock. I can't understand a word they're trying to say. Your radio is terrible."

Jesse bites his tongue. He wants to laugh and get angry at his grandfather's grumpiness. It's too early in the day and the drive has just begun.

"That's grunge music. I didn't mean to select that button," Jesse says, looking for something more classic.

"Grunge is right. There you go. That's more like it," Joe says when Jesse selects a 50s and 60s rock station.

Joe sits back and closes his eyes. His soft white hair fluffs around his head. Jesse drives for almost half an hour without any conversation with his grandpa. He must be tired and just enjoying his memories, Jesse thinks. Abruptly, Joe sits up and opens his eyes.

"I had a convertible when I was a young fellow," Joe says. "I bought it to impress your grandma. I spent all summer working on it. When it was finished, I drove to your grandma's house with a handful of flowers and asked her if she would go out me."

"What did she say?"

"She said she was going steady with someone else."

"That's terrible. After all your hard work."

"I told her I would wait." Joe chuckles at his recollection. "I waited at the end of her driveway and fell asleep in my car. The next day, she went out with me."

"Did she like your car?"

"She did. She wore the cutest little kerchief over her hair."

"So she dated you for your car."

"No. She said she liked my patience and persistence. She figured I'd go far."

"And you did. You were very successful."

"Successful, ha! What a load of crap that word is. A real slippery one." Joe pauses, looking out the window, "Your grandma, though – she knew what life was about. She was a good woman." Joe puts his head back on the seat rest and closes his eyes.

Jesse turns down the radio. "You married the love of your life. You raised a family on one moderate income. You had time and money to buy what you wanted and go on lots of trips. How is that not success?"

To Jesse, his grandpa's youth seems ideal - a time when men and women had their roles predetermined. It was very sexist, but everyone knew what they were supposed to do. It was a time when, if you worked hard, anything was possible.

As a single parent, Jesse wants to be a successful realtor and a good parent, so he pays others to do what he doesn't have time for. He pays people to clean, cook, provide homework support, and care for his children. And after that, there's not much time or money left.

"It's the word, Jesse. Success. Everyone ties it to money. Money helps, but it doesn't make a person successful."

"So what's success then, Grandpa?"

"Damn it, Jesse. Stop looking for success. You want happiness. Happiness is having good memories at the end of your life. Happiness is seeing your best qualities being passed on. Happiness is knowing you did something good. And turn up the damn radio. I like this song."

"So are you? If that's the goal, are you happy?"

Joe sighs. "I have good memories, Jesse."

Jesse glances at Joe. If happiness is having good memories, and Joe has good memories, then why does he look so sad? He turns up the radio.

"I wanted success, too, Jesse. It was your grandmother that insisted we do things. That I take time off work. She loved spending money willy-nilly on trips. I owe my memories, my happiness, to her."

At the summer house, Joe shows Jesse the rose garden that he wants Evan to weed. He shows him the vegetable gardens that could be replanted. He shows Jesse how the water collection and filtration system work. The solar panels and wind mill still function just fine, Joe says, and are relatively simple to maintain. The house has electricity but it could be off the grid. If Evan lived here, he could grow the majority of his food if he worked hard.

As Joe points out different features of the house and property, Jesse begins to see the summer home differently. He remembers how it once looked, realizing now, how much maintenance the house and property had required. Fixed up, it could again be a great place to bring kids.

Evan is learning by leaps and bounds, but he would still need a lot of Jesse's help if he lived here, and help required time which Jesse had little of. But getting it cleaned up would definitely increase its value. It could work, Jesse thinks. It could.

The summer home is on a phenomenal property. Trees line the back of the property which backs onto crown land and, behind that, a First Nations reserve at the ocean's edge. The location is ideal for anyone outdoorsy. Most of the homes here are summer homes used by hunters and fishers in the summer months. It would be a perfect home, except for one problem.

This area must be the last place on earth that doesn't have cell reception.