Garnet

Chapter 3- The King Had Seen Enough

Thomas King had seen it all.  The death of his wife, his daughter and her husband, his only grandchild suffer through the years of middle school and high school, the countless amount of jobs he had been fired from.  But, he never stopped going.  When his daughter had died, he had stayed in bed for two and a half weeks.  All he did was eat and sleep.  The only time he had gotten up was to use the bathroom. One day, though, he decided to just get up and change his clothes. The next day he took a shower. And so on and so forth, he got back to where he was supposed to be.

His granddaughter, Caroline, also kept him going. She was a giant ball of sunshine, or so he thought. Thomas never did see Caroline unhappy because she did not want him to see her unhappy. Caroline figured that her grandfather had seen enough.  And he had.

   Everyday, Thomas greeted Caroline in the morning, made her breakfast, and on school days, sent her on the bus.  Every night, he made dinner, washed the dishes, and said good night to Caroline before heading back downstairs to catch up on his TV.  Thomas didn't mind his life being one big schedule, where he knew he needed to do something at that certain point to keep up with the rest of the day.

There was one day, though, where Thomas's schedule had been completely thrown off. It was eighteen years ago. The Opales had been murdered, right here in Megg Falls. Thomas was at work and a month before, had just received word that his daughter had finally given birth to her baby girl. On the television, the morning after the Opales had been murdered, the newscaster was saying that one Opale did survive the brutal murder. Their only son. Thomas had never seen the boy, but felt truly bad for him. He would grow up in a world without his parents. So very similar to his granddaughter.

Fast forward to the present day, Thomas had just sent Caroline out on her mission to become an international super star. He always believed she could do it. In his pocket, Thomas's phone started to ring. "Hello?" he said, cheerfully.

"Hi, Tommy," said the person on the phone.  Thomas knew it was his friend Cheryl Burkens, just from the way she called him Tommy.  Him and Cheryl had weekly phone calls where they talked about everything that had happened since the last call. 

   "How are you feeling?"

   "Not so good."

"Oh no, what happened?"

"Well, it's complicated, I guess.  Rob and I have been growing apart recently and I don't know what to do.  We've tried counseling and vacations, but nothing is seeming to work."

"That's awful, Cheryl." He had only met Cheryl's husband, Rob, twice, but Cheryl had talked about so much, it felt like him and Rob knew each other on a spiritual level.

"So, my therapist told me I needed to try something new.  I'm really being hopeful here, but she said that I should indulge in something he loves and that showing you have an interest in one another could make a big difference in a marriage.  So, I knew that Rob loves animals, and I ordered him a fish tank! From one of the top builders in all of America!"

"Wow, Cheryl, that must've costed a fortune."

"Oh, it did, but it'll all be worth it to save our marriage!"

"Cheryl, are you sure you have enough money for all this?"

"Of course I do, Tommy, or I wouldn't have bought it. I think the builder is already here in Michigan."

"Where's he from?"

"Los Angeles."

"Wow, pretty far."

"Oh yeah, but it's all worth it. He's built tanks for the biggest celebrities like Michael Jordan and Kim Kardashian."

"That's pretty cool, Cheryl. I hope that'll make Rob happy!"

"Thank you Tommy! Well, I have to go. Barkley needs to be fed and frankly, a walk around the neighborhood. He's looking a little pudgy these days. But, I love the walks. They give me exercise as well."

"Alright, Cheryl, have fun on your walk!"

"Thank you Tommy. Oh, and sorry I didn't talk about this whole possible divorce thing with you earlier.  It's a little embarrassing and I wanted to figure it all out for myself before I went around telling people.  Call you next week!" And with that Cheryl hung up. Thomas put down the phone and went back to watching television. Sometimes Thomas King felt as though he had seen too much and could not take in anything more. Now was not one of those times.