My Damn Guitairist

whoop de doo

I sighed as I walked up to the last house of the day. Delivering papers are going to be the death of me. That beautiful Gibson in the shop is the only reason im doing this. The pay is quite alright for this job and i've almost got enough money for the guitar i've been dreaming about.

The man who lived there was sitting on the pourch with who I assumed was his wife, both in rocking chairs. It was a small house and they had some flowers in the front yard along with some hanging from the pourch. They seemed like nice people which surprisingly is quite rare to see on this job.  

As I handed the paper to the woman, the man smiled. 

"you look quite tired" he laughed a little "i used to be a paper boy when I was your age too" he smiled "ya like it?"he asked

I laughed "No, sir. The only reason im doing this is for another guitar. I've been saving my money." The lady took the paper and set it beside her with a smile.

"ah, so you play guitar?"

I nodded "Ever since I was 9"

He smiled "You know, the love of my life was a guitar player"

I turned to look at the lady beside him and smiled "really?" I asked her.

She laughed a bit and I looked back at the man with slight confusion.

"no, no not her" he smiled and looked out into his yard as if recalling a memory. "im talking about Frankie. He loved his guitar almost as much as I loved him"

I nodded "Does he live here, with you?" I questioned. 

he shook his head slowly "no, he done left long ago, son"

I frowned "im sorry for your loss, sir"

The man nodded "He was 34 when he died. Bad accident. But he would play that darn guitar all day. He would play for me and occasionally I would sing. We sometimes joked about forming a band but of course never really got to doing it"

I smiled, thinking about the band Jake, Sam, and I had.

"yep but he passed away. And for a long time I was real down about it. I didnt want anyone else in my life but then I met this old thing" he smiled at her "we were just friends but had been through a simular situation so we figured we might as well just get married. we were around 40 then and neither of us felt as if we were really gonna find anyone else to love so we got together for the benifets. So when we get old we both got someone to take care of us." he smirked and put his hand up to his mouth to indicate he was about to tell a secret but spoke in a voice loud enough for the woman to hear as well "im only with her so I got someone to call the ambulance if I ever have a heart attack"

"you better watch it mister, i'll give you a heart attack myself" she said

I chuckled and they both looked at eachother lovingly but with something a little off.

"so do you really love her? like you loved Frankie?" I wondered out loud.

He looked back out into the yard and smiled "now son, do you really think I could handle being stuck in that small house there with her for thirty years and not love her?" he laughed "I love her. I learned to. And I know she loves me. But its different. That may be hard to understand but its not like the way I loved Frankie. I could spend eternity with Frank and love him just the same by the end. He could never get old. He was charming and handsome, humorous and kind and oh boy was he wild. But her, oh gosh, 50 years should be enough" he chuckled.

"I dont think I can even handle 40" she said to me and I laughed.

I began to understand. They had a best friend type love. I wondered how he could talk about Frankie in such a way though, and move on like he did. 

"im sorry if this is a dark question, but how did you get over Frankie?" I asked.

"well, if you ever lose someone close to you im sure you'll understand. For the first few years it definately was not easy. I isolated myself and I even almost did something incredibly stupid" he shook his head and frowned "because when you lose someone you love it seems almost impossibe to see the bright side of things at first. Its hard to belive that life could get better after that. But then I thought about how Frank would feel. He wouldve slapped me if he could, knowing the state I was in after that. He woudln't want me wasting my life feeling down and holding on to him like that. He would want me to find happiness, so I decided I would. I began looking at the positive side. And of course I still kept him with me, but not in a way that would drag me down."

I nodded "I understand"

"but anyway im sure youve got things to do so I'll let ya go now" he smiled and I smiled back. 

"alright. see ya tomorrow" I smiled and reached out to shake his hand "im Kyle by the way. it was nice meeting you!"

He shook my hand "nice meeting you too. you can call me Gerard"

I smiled and turned to the lady beside him and held out my hand.

She took it "and i'm Lindsey."

"Keep playing, dont give that up, guitar. Its a great instrument" He said as I made my way down the stairs of their pourch to return home.

I turned my head to him and smied "thank you, I will!"