By the end of the first week, Waldo knew he was wasting his breath. The girl did the work okay but he couldn't get her real motivated. She didn't have no ambition, no hankering to carve out a career in pool ball manufacturing. It was such a waste. She'd been handed a golden opportunity on a golden plate and she couldn't see nothing but balls.
"I tell you Reet, young people today. They got no appreciation for stuff our generation would of been grateful for. You know how it was, Aretha honey. When we was young we was begging for work. Twenty of us fighting for one position. You recall how happy you was when they took you on at the sewerage works? Ten dollars a month plus overtime. That was real money in them days. And you got to keep the boots and snorkel.
He sat watching I Dream of Genie. He had no choice other than watching cause there wasn't no sound. He just sat and guessed what skinny old Major Nelson was moaning about and laughed. His guessing was probably funnier than the script anyway. He knew if Major Nelson was any kind of red blooded military man and he had Barbara Eden half dressed giving out wishes …Well, it was frustrating to see was all. He could of got the sound fixed but he was saving for Mexico.
He'd been saving for Mexico for ten years now. The company had an account he'd been paying into. The interest it built up would pay the final month's installment so really he saved money that way too.
'A Retirement You Could Find Only in Your Dreams.' He'd memorized all the advertising slogans.
'Lerdo de Tejada, Your Last Resort'.
'American Class at Mexican Prices'
'End it all with Us.'
'We'll Fill you Full of Beans'.
'Sunshine 24 Hours a Day.'
It'd been a sunny day indeed when he met the agent guy at McDonalds. It was the guy's day off but he just happened to have the photos with him. All them happy old folk playing croquet, and ballroom dancing, and riding donkeys along the beach. The guy worked for the company, but he'd already paid the down payment to go there himself. If that don't give you confidence, what would?
He was a likeable guy. He was an ex-lawyer so Waldo knew he could trust him. But even without his scholarly background, Waldo would still probably of trusted him cause Waldo pretty much trusted everyone. He was already dreaming about retirement under the hot Mexican sun even before the second Big Mac went down.
Another stroke of luck was that the guy had all the papers, the brochures and the contracts outside in his pickup. The pamphlet was real professional, all color and big words. There was more pictures and recommendations from satisfied retirees. They had ex-schoolteachers there, engineers, TV personalities. Waldo couldn't be certain, and the lawyer guy weren't giving nothing away, but one old biddy in the photos looked a lot like Marlene Deitrich. The lawyer just winked at Waldo when he asked. Marlene Deitrich. Man it had to be a hell of a place.
He signed right there in the truck, filled in the form, and handed over a small 'trust' deposit. He'd been paying off every month since for the past ten years. He got regular updates; the new tennis courts, the hiring of a chef from the actual France, and a Xeroxed sheet of useful Spanish phrases he hadn't quite memorized yet.
He'd learned some. 'Hola,' that was like 'hi'. Then there was 'yo tengo hambre'. That meant 'I'm hungry'. He figured that'd be the one he'd use most so he learned it first.
Course there'd had to be sacrifices through all this saving. There'd been no vacations. Plenty of overtime. He hadn't bought nothing new in all that time. If something broke down, he'd get it fixed. If it broke again, it could stay broke, like the TV.
So that's why Barbara wasn't saying nothing. But it was okay. He could talk to Aretha without no distractions.
"So what can I do, Reet? How can I convince the kid? If you and me'd had kids, they'd of had values. We would of had some good kids, you and me, Reet. I'd of been a good pappa. You'd of been a great momma."
He come over all nostalgic again. Getting old was making him soft on the inside as well as out. He got a lump in his throat and he couldn't swallow the hunk of Hershey bar he'd been chewing on. Him and Aretha hadn't had no kids on account of her problem. Her pipes was all messed up. That weren't the technical term for it, but whatever it was, she'd spent more time in the hospital than some of them doctors. She must of ended up real puzzling inside, all mismatched and wrong placed. There was so much plastic inside her she sure as hell disappointed the worms at the cemetery.
Waldo only upset himself more by thinking about it. She'd been gone fifteen years already but he still saw her. Still talked with her. Still loved her like no woman before or since. But man he wished she was there loving him back.