Adirondack Mountains
Life in a small town can be very interesting as I found out after I drove through the Adirondacks in Upper New York State one Autumn day.
My name is Mike Bennet. I earn my living as a Project Engineer and I work for one of this countries largest Construction Companies. It’s one of those sort of jobs where I spend anything up to four years in one place working on a project. I build interesting things like skyscrapers and very large buildings. Once, I was a very happily married man but my wife, whom I loved very much, got bored with the time I spent away from home and even though she could have come with me, prefered to stay close to her family in Texas. She finally left me for another guy. I guess that I only have myself to blame but I was so much in love with this lady that I saw through any faults that she may have had. I should have known that life was too good to be true and should have suspected something was amiss when she no longer ended our phone conversations with “I love you” as we used to do. I was away for long periods at a time with my work but was usually able to manage a month of vacation every year and spend it with her.
Such are the perils of women. They have this way of sucking you in and then spitting you back out after they have chewed you over and get what they want. I suppose that I am being a little unfair as not all ladies are like that. Just my luck that I happened to find the one’s that are. It can’t possibly be my fault can it now…
I should have known better as here I am going on fifty, losing my hair and already in the clutches of wine, women and song having led a pretty boisterous life travelling around with the construction company. My work had taken me all over the good old U.S. of A and had shown me all sides of life, some good, some bad. I had found myself temporarily out of a job as I was in between projects and the next one was not ready to start for three months. I was due a long vacation not having had one in almost a year since the last job ended and having been pretty prudent in the past, not withstanding what the wife had cost me, had some money saved to where I was very comfortably off. I did not have a regular fixed home anymore as I was always away with my work and my marriage, had cost me any chance of retaining the home after the Judge had finished with me.
I was a little bitter at the world and women in general and blamed them for everything. Of course the fact that I was stupid enough to like them had nothing to do with it. At least I was lucky in one respect that my ex-wife had been unable to have children so at least there were no kids to suffer the indignities of being divorced.
My last project had been a high-rise in Buffalo, New York and after wrapping it up, I decided that I would drive around for a bit stopping wherever I felt like it and seeing where I would end up. I found myself back in the Adirondacks which is a beautiful place to be except in the middle of winter unless you like the snow and cold. I came across this little village that composed of a group of houses with a few shops and a couple of bars and restaurants. I had no timetable to be anywhere and I stopped at the first restaurant I saw aptly named the Steak House and it appealed to me enough to stop to get a decent meal.
I walked inside and the waitress seated me and gave me a bright and cheerful smile. I ordered a beer to wash down the food and was busy studying the menu when into my lowered gaze stepped the most beautiful pair of legs. In my mind, I knew it was not my waitress as I already knew what her legs looked like as I followed her to my a table.
“I have brought you your beer” she said in a pleasant voice. “Let Grace or me know if you need another”. Grace it turns out, is the waitress. I thanked her and watched her as she walked back to the bar area, a thing of beauty from behind… especially from behind.
I ordered my food from Grace and thought about how things were for me at this moment in time and what I might do to change it. I finished my meal and wandered over to the bar at the end of the restaurant where the same waitress who had brought me my beer, was working and sat down on one of those tall stools. You know the ones I mean. You almost need a step-ladder to get on the thing and once there have to move very carefully as they don’t provide parachutes and it’s a long way down.
I watched the barmaid as she went about her business. I took a guess as to how old she was and figured her to be in her mid to late thirties. She had long blonde hair, legs that wouldn’t quit attached to the most beautiful body you have ever seen which got me wondering how much of it was real and how much due to modern-day surgery. She moved like a model and had a quick smile for all of her customers. She spotted me at the end of the bar and came over walking in a slow lithesome way that trained models use.
“Did you enjoy your meal”? she asked ” and what can I get you this time. Another beer”?
“Yes, the meal was very enjoyable. No more beer, got to watch my figure” I said “I think I will have a scotch on the rocks” and watched her as she went about her work moving with an easy grace and a ready smile. She came back with the drink and said, “My name is Julie if you need another drink”.
I thanked her and made a mental note of the name.