The Little Book that Could, Not!

Have you ever been through a Divorce?

Well, Divorce dictates changes, in your life.  Some you choose, some are chosen for you.

Changes might include things like your address, your bank account, but also day to day things like how you spend your after work hours and who you spend those hours with.

In my case, I spent those after hours alone.

Lonely breeds depression, and depression breeds a dark outlook one presents to the world.

But, even in the dark, one can laugh.

At my work, I had a pretty close friend, Ron.
He just happened to be black, I was not.

Ron openly bragged he was a ladies man.
He had a smile that announced the Sun rising.
Ron also had a voice like molasses and a very sharp mind.

All in our office,  loved to listen to him talk.  He could be reading from a Chinese menu for all we cared.

I had been with Ron on some of his sales calls.
He was, simply, charming.

One day, he came to me with a little dark book in hand.It had a flourish at the topic of the book, that made me think it was a diary, of sorts.

 

But, I would never picture Ron writing,
“Dear Diary, today I had five sales calls.  All went well.”

I had noticed the smallish book before, as he would frequently have it out on his desk in his early morning hours.

Ron looked into my face and asked, “So, how are you feeling today?  Because you look like hell!”

A really good friend is a truthful friend.

His declaration caught me off gaurd.  My response was your typical, ‘shoulder shrug’.
A physical “I dunno”!

Ron continued, “Look dude, you need help!  You drag all that negative shit with you to the office every day and it is creeping people out.”

He waited for a denial, a ‘yes’, hell any kind of response.

Finally, I got a couple of thoughts together.

“Right, I got it.  I am not sleeping very much, I sort of lost my appetite for food.  And, well, to tell you the truth, Brother Jack is helping me when I do sleep!”

Ron patiently listened and then said,
“You need a woman.  Probably more than any Dude I know.  We have got to get you set up!”

At that, Ron opened his little book and started flipping the pages while thinking openly.

“Now, do you like them Round or Thin, Big bootie, maybe Asian, or a Redhead?” Ron asked.

As the pages flipped by, I noticed a name, followed by a phone number, then funny little graphics.  These symbols were perhaps stars, rockets, dashes, long lines.

It suddenly dawned on my what that book was and why Ron spent so much time on it in the early hours.  It might also explain to me why Ron would leave the office for a few hours during lunch or early for the day.

“Well, come on, what do you like, what do you need?  I have a 9 oclock phone conference.”  Ron pressed.

My mind was whirling with what he had said, and what he was asking.

I tried to find the words, stumbling for a start.
“Well, Ron, thank you!”  This was a good start.

I found his face and locked into it, while air was filling my voicebox in response,

“I like a woman I can talk to!  A good conversationalist, you know?”
I was proud to have found any words, but those were mine.

Ron stopped flipping the pages.

He looked in my face again, I guess to figure out if I was joking or not.

As the seconds spun past, he began to measure the gravity of what I had said.

“What?  Really?” as Ron was rarely a loss for words, I knew I was witnessing something special.

He closed his little book with a flourish, stuck it back in his suit pocket, looked into my face once more and stated,

“I cannot help you! ”

He began to shake his head, to chuckle to himself with that beautiful voice.

He started to turn away, and then looked back into my face again.
He started again, to shake his head and chuckle.

“Really?”

Finally, he turned his back and walked away from me back to his desk.

For several weeks after that, I would catch Ron looking at me.
He would catch my eye, likely smile, shake his head, and chuckle.

I have not seen my old friend Ron in years, but I have do doubt, that from time to time, he will tell his present friends about the odd duck he tried to help all those years ago in his melodius voice.

In my minds eye, he will shake his head and chuckle, yet again.