Today's installment: "A Little Girl Walks Into My Life, Part 1"
Good day, fellow traveler, and welcome to the new version of "The Life of Oddley". As with last time, the format is of a serial nature, with now the storylines and plots more fitting to the tale at hand. Also different is the story being told here. You see, Oddley now has a new story he'd like to tell. One that will surely be nice to look at.
Now, without further ado, is chapter one of the new "Life of Oddley"
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To beginning my story, I must say that I never expect the life I got outta this. You see, I was born back in 1948. When I was born, my mother overheard this nurse describing how I looked fresh from the womb. When my mother heard one word, she felt that it was the proper name for a newborn baby and my father couldn't say otherwise.
Not that my father was any real influence on my life. You see, when I was about two years old, some nut in the north part of divided Korea got the idea to invade the south part, starting a war over it. My father, having been unable due to age to have joined the fight for freedom a few years earlier, decided it was time to go and go he did.
I can still remember the day he came back. He came back to full military honors. You see, while over in Korea, a bullet found the route from the barrel of a Chinese rifle to the middle of my father's heart. In an instance, I was the child of a single parent and the son of a fallen soldier. Not a bad way to enter the world but not a good one either.
For the next seventeen years of my life, I grew up. I grew up without a father. My life was a bit rougher than most with that piece of stuff tucked under my hat. However, despite the words of others and the articles of the Ladies' Home Journal, I became a working man anyway. My working life can be summed up in one word: food. That's because I ended up working at a supermarket.
Not just any supermarket. I ended up at one of the best around, Easy-Mart. It was the latest and greatest of such stores. The store I worked in had that modern touch with the old-fashioned people. The oldest-fashioned was Mr. Randall, my boss. In order to describe him, I say that he is like Mel Cooley, from that old show. Balding, wearing classes, always looking down at the lower levels of the job.
All of this is set-up for the biggest change I'd ever gotten in twenty years of life. Well, nineteen years and eight months of life. That biggest change began in mid-January of 1968. The exact date was January 17, 1968. I'll never forget that day, and to think, it began normally, with me waking up. I went through my morning routine. I can still remember it bit by bit. It all started with a knock at the door of my apartment as I was finishing my breakfast.
"I wonder who could that be?" I asked myself as I got up to answer the door.
The walk from the table to the door would be the last quiet moments of my life at that point. From the second I reached the door, I knew not what was coming my way. I remembered opening the door and seeing the figure of Mr. Sawyer, a man who lived on my floor. His appearence is still fresh to me, his white t-shirt with his slightly stained brown work pants. His hair, beginning to thin, and face, covered in worry over something.
"Hello, Oddley." he said to me.
"Come in, Mr. Sawyer." I said to him as he walked in.
"I guess you're wondering what I'm doing here at this hour of the morning." he said in that slightly cultured, yet slightly uncouth accent of his.
"Now, that you mention it, yes." I said as I closed the door behind me.
"Well, you know that I wouldn't speak to you this early if it wasn't important but believe me, it is." he said, trying his best to put a grin on his face.
"Calm down, Mr. Sawyer. What is it you wish to speak about?" I asked, not knowing the answer to come.
"It's my daughter." he replied back with a pained gasp.
"Ah, the darling little Joanie." I said, remembering her name like I could remember my own.
"Well, I guess I should come right out and say it." he said, beginning to pace.
"Right." I told him.
"But maybe I should hold back a little." he said, quickening his pace.
"Whatever." I said.
"No, I should just say what I need to say." he said, now pacing like mad.
"Mr. Sawyer, just say it!" I said to him.
"Oddley, I'm leaving." he said.
"Leaving? Leaving where?" I asked him almost knowing the answer.
"Here. This building, Chicago, the country." he said.
"Why on earth for?" I asked.
"The Peace Corps." he said.
"You mean you joined it?" I said.
"You see, after I was canned from my last job, I've been sick over how to take care of Joanie. She's a growing little girl, you know." he said.
"I know. I've seen her." I said.
"Well, I've decided that I can't take care of her now." he said.
"So, with that in your mind, you joined the Peace Corps." I said, thinking ahead a little.
"Yes, and I decided that someone else should take care of Joanie for me until I'm ready to come back." he said, looking right at me.
"And who is that person?" I asked, hoping for another answer than the one he had.
"I've decided on you, Oddley." he said.
My mind turned inward for a moment as it reviewed the sum total of knowledge it had on parenting and the like. When it came to the conclusion that such knowledge did not exist within my brain, it allowed me to respond to Mr. Sawyer's decision.
"You want me to take care of Joanie? Why me?" I asked.
"Because you seem like the best candidate." he replied with near certainly.
"But I don't know if I am." I told him point blank.
"Then you'll find out, won't you?" he said before he made a quick and speedy exit.
After he left, I had a few moments to go over the fact at hand. I remembered back on my childhood. I remembered my own lack of a father and therefore, any guide to being one. I even remembered the moment I saw the coffin they'd brought back from Korea with my father inside. I then came to only one conclusion: I was no father and I hadn't any idea on how to raise a child.
After all, I was still one myself, for all intents and purposes. I may have had a job and earned money. I might could see where Mr. Sawyer could see me as a potential parent for Joanie. However, the fact remained that I was in no shape to raise a child. I knew that for sure. After all that, I made my way to work, where I knew some help could be found.
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That concludes the first episode of week one. Next time, we meet the co-workers that Oddley considers best friends and meet the one man he calls boss. That's all next time on "The Life of Oddley"
Good day, fellow traveler...
