Tommy

By James J Slattery

Nothing is out of place in Tommy's life. Not his immaculate house and lawn. Not his beautiful and successful children. Certainly not his loving and loyal wife, Lana.

But when Tommy's health and, later, Lana's, take bad turns, he finds himself facing the question of what had meaning and what does not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Slate Run Publishing
• Release date: Oct 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519957351

Book preview

TOMMY

What a difference a day makes! Just yesterday two years ago, an exact duplicate of today, the sun shone an autumn gold upon the green of our morning’s October lawn. Lush. Thick and green the grass. Overabundant, one of Lana’s friends called the flowers of coming winter shouting colors of eternal life at the doomed snows of December. Lana claims the flower of God is the rose. I would say the Chrysanthemum, strong and defiant, here and gone again. Then here again, if we prepare his place in our lives, our gardens. Mums line the north and south foundations of my garage. My place of work. My shelter from the insecurities out beyond our two-lane lane. Candytuft stay green at the back of the house as do the Rocky Mountain Junipers precisely spaced along the border with a neighboring hay field. We have set islets of yearlong color in random pattern not at all random about our two-acre lawn. Tea Roses, Floribunda, and English Rhododendrons, purple, white and yellow, about the house. Edging the concrete drive, every spring a new vision for the coming summer. Between our eastern neighbors and us a sculpted line of Arbor vita. To the west a brush-free woodlot.

Of course there is a pool. Rectangular, eighty feet long by twenty-two wide. Nine feet at its deeper end, three at the shallow. Bordered by stamped concrete — four immaculate feet at far side and ends, a twenty-foot patio reaching to the double sliding glass of our indoor kitchen and dining areas. Lana and I debated a lenai and decided no. Too obvious. Too Sunshine State for good old cloud ridden New York. The sliders have screens, and we did extend a cedar shaked cover eight feet out for day-long shade as well as protection from the storms of upstate summer. We very much enjoy the pleasure of outdoor living from the comfort of the inside. The girls especially loved it when they were home. They and their friends enjoyed our place, and most — as far as Lana and I knew anyway — of their serious teenage parties unraveled within a hundred feet or so of home. They swam, built huge bonfires