Opportunities

By Roland Boike

Wayne Thompson learns early in life that he must take advantage of every opportunity. Wayne, seeking to better his life, accepts an opportunity for employment in Tucson, Arizona.

A stranger gives Wayne a ride as he hitchhikes his way to Tucson.

The stranger sees Wayne as an opportunity to end his nasty divorce by substituting Waynes body for his own in a house fire.

Along the way, Wayne meets the wife of the stranger who turns out to be his old childhood sweetheart, April.

Wayne and April seize the opportunity and make plans of their own to become very rich by having Wayne assume the identity of Aprils husband.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984540492

Roland Boike

Roland Vincent Boike was born October 28, 1930 at his family home in Madeira, Ohio. He is the son of Dr. Stephen Boike and Ludvica Rensi Boike and is one of seven children. During the Korean War, Roland served in 134th and the 147th Field Artillery as Chief of Section of a 105 Howitzers Battalion. Roland attended Western Kentucky State University, Ohio State Department of Agriculture, and the University Of Cincinnati Department Of Applied Arts. He was awarded a full scholarship to attend Lincoln College of Chiropractic where he graduated in 1962 with a Degree in Chiropractic. Roland practiced Chiropractic in Loveland, Ohio for thirty- five years and was a Staff Physician at Jewish Hospital in Kenwood, Ohio. He served as Team Physician for Loveland High School, Western Brown High School and Wilmington College Girls Soccer Team. Roland served as Mayor and Vice Mayor in Loveland, Ohio, a community of over 10,500 residents. Roland was a founder and Director of The Community National Bank, Loveland, Ohio and Chairman of the Loveland 1976 Centennial Celebration, which produced a live outdoor spectacular, The History of Loveland. Roland was a founder, past president and member of the Board of Trustees of The Loveland Chamber of Commerce. He designed the Valentine postage meter stamp and the Logo There Is Nothing In The World So Sweet As Love. He was recognized with an award from The National Safety Council for saving the lives of three children in a submerged automobile at Lake Isabella in May, 1964. Roland was honored by the City of Loveland, Ohio for dedicated service to the community with a commemorative marker In the Veterans Memorial Park. Roland is a Kentucky Colonel and has received numerous awards for civic achievements.

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Copyright © 2018 by Roland Boike.

ISBN:                  Softcover                     978-1-9845-4050-8

                             eBook                          978-1-9845-4049-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/13/2018

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Contents

Chapter 1     My First Opportunity

Chapter 2     Creating An Opportunity

Chapter 3     Regretting An Opportunity

Chapter 4     An Appointment Opportunity

Chapter 5     Death Generates An Opportunity

Chapter 6     An Opportunity In The Air

Chapter 7     Opportunities From A New Friend

Chapter 8     Dealing With An Opportunist

Chapter 9     Hitchhiking Opportunities

Chapter 10   Waiting For An Opportunity

Chapter 11   The End Of An Opportunity

Chapter 12   Making The Best Of An Opportunity

Chapter 13   Investment Opportunities

Chapter 14   An Opportunity For Charlie

Chapter 15   Explaining An Opportunity

Chapter 16   An Opportunity To Flee

Chapter 17   Accepting An Opportunity

Chapter 18   A Visitors Opportunity

Chapter 19   Charlie’s Opportunity

Chapter 20   Silverbell Wash Opportunity

Chapter 21   Fbi Opportunities

Chapter 22   Opportunity For An Overnight Guest

Chapter 23   An Opportunity To Reveal The Past

Chapter 24   An Opportunity To Return The Money

Chapter 25   Deposit Box Opportunities

Chapter 26   A Family Opportunity

Chapter 1

MY FIRST OPPORTUNITY

Growing up in Madisonville, Ohio, never afforded me as young man the opportunity for financial or social advancement. Yes, we had a theater, a grocery store and place you could buy clothing but, that was about it. Oh! Sorry I forgot to mention that we did have a drugstore.

I never had much more than a roof over my head and an occasional meal. The meals usually came from a box or directly from the electric stove.

By the age of five, I knew pretty much how to operate the electric stove, avoid starvation and keep myself alive.

My name is Wayne Thompson and I lived with my alcoholic mother, Shirley Thompson in a one-bedroom apartment over Pearson’s drugstore.

The apartment consisted of a living room with a couch, a coffee table and a 19-inch TV. The kitchen had a yellow Formica table with 4 double tube chrome legs, 3 mismatched chairs, an electric stove and a refrigerator.

My mother, quite frequently used the bedroom for overnight guest when one of my many uncles stayed the night. Occasionally my mother slept there by herself. I usually slept on the couch, however, if one of my many uncle and my mother watched television, I would curl up in a blanket on the floor behind the couch.

It wasn’t until I was 10 years of age and in the fourth grade at Madisonville Elementary School that I realized most of my classmates had a father. My mother never discussed my father, so as far as I knew at the time, I was the child from the second immaculate conception to be recorded in history.

It wasn’t until one day when I was looking for money in my mother’s dresser that I came across my birth certificate. The place on the birth certificate that indicated Mother Shirley Thompson was typed in very neatly. The place on the birth certificate that indicated Father Unspecified was typed in very neatly.

At the time I could not understand why my last name and my mother’s last name was Thompson and my father’s last name was Unspecified. The document also failed to indicate my father’s first name.

One time when I really got anxious about my father, I thought of looking in the phone book but, without his first name I knew it would be hopeless as I imagine there would be a lot of Unspecified families listed.

On my 11th birthday celebration as I sat eating my birthday cupcake with my mother and my mother’s most favorite brother-in-law, I started to think about my family.

Uncle Harry, was the most favorite of all my uncles. The thought of my father suddenly popped into my head. I thought it sad that I could not celebrate the occasion with my mother, father and my father’s brother, my Uncle Harry.

Mom, what was my daddy’s first name? I asked as I took a sip of milk to wash down the day-old cupcake.

Forgetit, and eat your cupcake, it’s almost time for you to go to bed.

It wasn’t until years later when I lie in bed lamenting about my childhood that I realize for the first time that my father’s name was not Forgetit Unspecified. It was one of the saddest days in my life but, I decided to forget it and move on with my life.

The last conversation that I ever had with my mother that I can recall was the one we had one morning when moms overnight guest, my Uncle John sat with her at the kitchen table drinking coffee to ease her headache from a hangover.

My uncle John asked, Shirley, how did a nice girl like you end up like this?

My mother lifted her head from the table and mumbled, I… never…had…a decent opportunity given to me…in my whole life…I…always get the short end of the stick.

Yes…that’s it, I always get… the short end… of the stick, and she laid her head back down on the kitchen table and fell into a stupor.

After my uncle John left, I went to the kitchen table, sat down across from my mother and shook her a few times.

When she raised up her head, I asked my mother, What is an opportunity, Mom?

It’s an opening in your life where you get a decent break. If you don’t take advantage of it when it comes, you may never have the chance to grab ahold of it again; it simply passes you by and your miserable life just stays the way it is from day to day…like mine.

Her head fell back on the table and she fell asleep snoring. I sat there at the breakfast table for a long time thinking over what my mother had said.

It seemed to me that my mother was always looking for an opportunity but she never found one or did not recognize it when it occurred.

I was a very quiet, patient person and at that time in my life, I did not make friends easily. On occasion, when I happened to be present when something was given away free, I always waited until everyone had received their share and only then would I reach for my share. Sometimes, everything would be gone by the time I reached for my portion of what was being given away. However, on occasion my patience paid off and I received everything that was left over.

It was one day at school that I finally put together my philosophy for the future. I decided then and there what my philosophy to live by would be seeking out new opportunities in the world which I presently floundered.

I had grown tired of sitting in the background hoping that those ahead of me would leave me a small crumb or something of value.

I decided then and there to take advantage of every opportunity the moment they appeared.

For several weeks, I sat and watched a spider build a web under one of the picnic tables on the school playground. After the spider made his web, he just sat, waited, didn’t move, and didn’t make a sound.

Just as soon as some unfortunate creature tangled itself in his web, the spider sprang into action like a shell shot from a cannon. He pounced on the unsuspecting insect and devoured it.

I had always thought the spider was sleeping. Suddenly I realized that what the spider was waiting for all that time was an opportunity.

I shall do nothing in life except to sit and wait for the precise opportunity to present itself and then I will strike. I will not wait until everyone else has taken advantage of me, hoping they would leave me some small bit of remuneration.

That is when I started to observe my fifth-grade teacher Mrs. Hartman, with great interest. She had the habit of laying her purse on the floor by her feet at her desk.

Today as I sat waiting for an opportunity to happen, one of the students brought Mrs. Hartman a glass bubble with a Santa Claus enclosed in it, when it was shaken it caused it to snow on the Santa.

Almost everyone in the room was busy shaking the Santa Claus glass bubble to watch it snow.

I stood to the rear of Mrs. Hartman’s desk with the other children and while everyone’s attention was drawn to the Santa Claus glass bubble, I reached down and removed $25 from the $66 that I found in Mrs. Hartman’s purse. I did not take all the money as I was not a thief and I was certainly not greedy. Besides Mrs. Hartman would probably think she had spent the money and simply forgotten about it.

At lunch that very same day, I was leisurely walking past a group of my classmates who were playing with the tetherball. My attention was on another matter when I happened to stepped into the path of the swinging ball. The ball hit me squarely in my right eye with such force that it wasn’t long before I had a black eye.

My eye was really hurting me and after school I ran home to find my mother. I had no idea where my mother was or when if ever, she would return. She had not been home for two days now, and I had not eaten since yesterday. I had not brought any of my own money to school today, so I was unable to purchase food in the school cafeteria. There was no use looking in the refrigerator or the pantry, I knew there was no food in our house.

I climbed the flight of stairs to reach our apartment over Pearson’s Drugstore.

Mom! Mom are you home? I called as I ran into the living room. There was no one there not even one of my uncles. I knew there was no food in the house to eat and I was getting extremely hungry and tired of living this way.

I sat at the kitchen table drinking a glass of water and reviewed the events of the day. I now have $25 and I have a black eye. I am living in a house with no food and my mother has not been home for two days. I think that this is my opportune moment to turn adversity into an opportunity and start my life somewhere else.

I went to my bedroom and removed all of the money I had saved and had hidden beneath the mattress along with the little bit of money that I found in my mother’s purse.

I walked into the Pearson’s Pharmacy below our boarding room to look for our landlord, Jason Pearson. I found the pharmacist in the rear of the drugstore and told him about my mother and the food.

Chapter 2

CREATING AN OPPORTUNITY

How did you get the black eye, Wayne? Mr. Pearson asked.

You know when my mother has too much to drink; sometimes she gets very angry, I said. Knowing full well that Mr. Pearson would think my mother had hit me and after all I had told the truth, it wasn’t a lie, the pharmacist had just come to the wrong conclusion.

I’m going to put an end to this right now, Mr. Pearson said, as he reached for the telephone.

What are you going to do, Mr. Pearson? I asked.

I am going to call Children’s Services and report your mother. Here’s $10, Wayne. You go down the street to the Happy Hour Restaurant and get yourself something to eat. After you have eaten, I want you to come right back here so I can be sure you are fed and have a safe place to stay tonight, Mr. Pearson said.

Thank you so much, Mr. Pearson. I will come right back as soon as I have eaten, I said.

I walked two blocks to the skyline Chili Parlor and ordered a Chili Coney and a Pepsi. My order came to $4.90. I use five dollars of my own money and put the change in my pocket along with the $25 I received from Mrs. Hartman, the $10 I received from Mr. Pearson and the money from my mother’s purse.

When I returned to the pharmacy, I found Mr. Pearson standing with a woman and a