7 minute read
WELL DONE! Fiction THE OLD MAN OF VISTA VIEW by Shayla Dodge
THE OLD MAN OF VISTA VIEW by Shayla Dodge
The old man of Vista View kept the grounds of a building in the Mediterranean town of Saranda, Albania. With pearly long hair, and a few teeth peeking from his cavernous smile, his lumbering belly couldn’t be contained by the dingy painters’ shirts he wore. On his swollen feet, his shoes were tattered, and he moved with a patient gait, as he hauled rocks from one end of the complex to the hill below.
God would have been able to tell you of his toil. His life of laborious work, his wife at home griping because of his inability to provide for his family. But the old man of Vista View was not educated, his parents never had the means to send him to school, and at 17 he had to fight in a civil war which he didn’t side with. After 8 long years of shimmying belly down in the dust and heat with an AK47 he really didn’t use, he was finally discharged, and the war was declared over. Under the next dictatorship of twenty years, he worked as a laborer in the spring and summer, and mainly as a meagerly paid cleanup personnel for the city each winter.
His wife, who bore him three, grew more disenchanted with each kid. Angry that the old man of Vista View had impregnated her, saddened by her aging skin and weathered features, and embittered by the expectations for women without a present man. She would tax him with her distress daily. Nagging and complaining, weaponizing her sex, painfully pointing to all his shortcomings when he was going about his work about the house. “Why have I not been built the villa you promised?”, she would growl. “When are you going to fix the roof”, and “Why would I want sex when you cannot afford the children we have?” And who could blame her the old man would think. He was not a wealthy man, many of the previous neighbors had already moved into new houses, or nicer buildings. Though most had taken up black market activity to stay wealthy, they were still able to send their kids to nice schools in the capital.
His kids had remained ignorant. He had no ability to send them to private tutors to learn English, Spanish, or Italian. He had nothing but a life of toil to offer them, and yet he was patient and kind to them. And each day after school he would take his kids out in his dungy and teach them how to fish or have them help him in their little garden and he would explain the principles of life. Patiently, he would tell them the importance of always being compassionate and kind, no matter what life brought your way. Of how Karma works, and what each stage of life will bring. When his kids would come home with red slips for missing homework, or pink slips because of a disciplinary intervention, instead of yelling he would spread his arms and wrap them in his love. Because of this, the old man was at ease with how his children were developing. And he was as proud as any other father who would show up to the school in their fancy cars with their loud and arrogant ways. The old man knew that good was in store for his children, if not now, then eventually.
The next day when the old man woke up and went to work, it was only to find his boss was gone. It was Friday, and the old man was supposed to get his paycheck. But this was not the first time that his boss had forgotten to pay him. In fact, if there was a truth about it, the problem was more endemic than this. The old man’s boss would also not buy the materials he agreed to or end up cutting corners in other ways. This fact could have made the old man angry, but instead he simply would remind his boss of his missing paycheck and continue on his way.
So, on this day, as any other, the old man started by going in the back behind the building to begin by getting out his wheelbarrow, and the meager tools he had. He ended up mainly using his bare hands, sifting through the larger rocks to find the biggest ones to set aside, and the medium ones to be thrown over the side. It was just about noon, the old man knew because the sound of the call to prayer was just over, when down came the young couple who lived upstairs. Instead of following the path down into the city, they turned to him, bringing a little package, and what looked to be a plastic bag filled with some dark looking cakes. Though he could not understand what the couple said, being of a different nationality, he gathered that they had brought him this gift because of his service to them during the previous days. He saw, and thought he heard them say these were chocolate cakes. And he was pleased they had thought of him, so he thanked them loudly, and gave them a wide generous smile.
It was not until they were gone, that the man began to examine the package. He thought to himself, he would have one cake now, and save the rest for his family. But there was something in the package which he hadn’t seen. Oh, it was a blue napkin, and when he took it out, $1,000 fell out. At first, he was so startled he didn’t know what to do. But then he thought of running after the young couple to give it back, for he had not done them bidding to receive anything in return. Then he realized that this gift was given to him in this way for a reason. It was not a challenge to his honor; it was a gift of compassion. This he could accept, he finally decided.
As soon as he began to realize this a large black bird swooped down and snatched up the bills from the ground. There must have been some cake on the bills, for the bird would not have wanted it otherwise. But before the old man could do anything, the bird was up so far in the air, there was no way he would be able to catch it. Instead of crying out in despair or even feeling blue about losing such a prized gift, the old man shook his shinny hair and laughed, took out a chocolate cake and took a big bite. Life is suffering, he knew. To have something taken away before its prize was realized was nothing new. So, for this old man, it was not a burden. He thought to himself, what a nice young couple. Then he picked up his rake and began to sift rocks again, and when he went home though he didn’t say to his wife that the bird had stolen his prize, his wife was pleased to eat a cake or two. She finally admitted loudly “That young couple must have thought you were a nice man.”
