Moments

              [Moments]

Henry was a master at the art of piddling. He wasn't a day over forty, and his name really was Henry, although no one used it except his family. Other people, for some odd reason, tended to call him Francis. He was not very productive at his work, but it did not seem to affect his employment status. He was 6 feet tall, bent a little, and his skin was grayish, but no one noticed it because of the almost perpetual smile on his face.

Henry thought of his life as being made up of little moments. For example just last week he was stopped by a large, angry and jealous man, who proclaimed that he was going to kick Henry’s ass for messing around with his wife. Henry was petrified, but while waiting to be injured by this big man, a lady walked out of a store and said to the large man, who was obviously her husband,” Bruce, what the hell are you doing?”

"I'm about to change the looks on your boyfriend's face," Bruce replied.

”You idiot, I’ve never laid my eyes on this man before. Now leave him alone and help me with these bags.”

For a few brief moments, Henry saw his entire life flash before him. But he could not explain how relieved he was that Betty Jo had been so convincing.

Earlier in his life, Henry was married but it took him a while before he became aware of his new wife’s real character. He learned that her tone was not one of anger or sorrow, not even of contempt, but there was in it something that quite froze his blood. She began to create scandal after scandal in public and went out of her way to humiliate him. Henry then knew he needed to get out of his marriage before something bad happened to him. But when he told his wife, unfortunately for Henry, she disagreed. Henry found himself standing in their living room with a shotgun pointed directly at his chest. His wife with her back to the front window told Henry," It's either- you and me or I become a grieving widow.

 Before Henry could answer, a baseball burst through the front window and hit his wife square in the back of the head. She fell to the floor with a robust clunk.

Henry stood there astonished and at the same time frozen in place. For a moment, he remembered the conversations he’d had with the kids across the street where most days they played baseball. Henry had said to them, “You guys need to be really careful not to hit one toward my house and break one of my windows. Not that I would mind that much but my wife will be really pissed, and she would take it out on me. She has a habit of finding ways to make anything my fault.” But this time after shaking himself back to reality, he walked to the broken window and yelled at the kids across the street,” Thanks-guys.”

 Recently, Henry felt as if something remarkable and life-changing was going to happen. Henry was the only child of his father who had a twin brother named Franklin. Franklin also had an only child, a boy named Bob. Sadly, Henry’s father had died from an automobile accident a few years earlier. Franklin, his twin brother, remarkably passed in a similar way just last month, but this time due to a train wreck.

Franklin was a very successful businessman and a multi-millionaire. Everything was left to his only son, which made Bob delirious with joy. You see Bob was nothing like his dad. Unlike Franklin, Bob was not levelheaded; he partied way too much, drank too much, and acquired a new girlfriend it seemed, every week. It did not bother Bob at all that his dad had passed away. The only thing he cared about was the money.

Henry was at the lawyer's office waiting for Bob to arrive for the reading of the will. He was made aware that his uncle had left him a small stipend. While they waited, the phone rang. It was the police calling from a car accident. The cop on the scene just happened to know Franklin and Bob, and Franklin’s attorney. He was calling to inform the attorney that Bob had died in the collision. The attorney turned to Henry and told him the news while at the same time informing him of a clause in the will that gave Henry everything in case Bob became deceased. Another clause required the recipient of the inheritance to give 50% of the total to charity.

Henry sat there for a few moments remembering his conversations with Bob, warning him that his wayward life would take him down one day. Then he realized he was now a multimillionaire and questioned whether he should quit his job. Henry did not want to make any rash decisions so he decided to stay at his job for at least six months. In his mind, he needed to be sure that the inheritance alone would be enough to take care of him. The people at work almost immediately began to treat Henry much nicer than they had in the past. For example, they began holding doors open for him or bringing him coffee without him asking, along with many other similar things.

Henry eventually moved into his uncle Franklin’s mansion. The house was so large that every time Henry vocalized, his words seemed to echo no matter how soft he spoke. He became very lonely. Henry decided it was time to begin exercising the 50% clause. So he began to look for worthy causes.

There were many charities, but one, in particular, garnered his attention more than the others. It was a nursing home that dealt with the downtrodden and mentally challenged. Henry had been there many times and felt a special kinship, resulting in him giving them two million dollars. But on this day he met someone he had not seen there before. This person caught his eye because Henry realized they had an astonishingly similar look about them.

Not only did they look alike, but their age was probably the same or nearly the same, and they both wore that same grayish skin. Henry approached this new person and introduced himself.

Holding out his hand, Henry said,” Hello, my name is Henry, what’s yours?”

"Hello there Henry, it's nice to meet you, and my name is Francis."

“You know, there’s a coincidence? A lot of people in this town and for reasons, I cannot understand want to call me Francis. That's interesting, don't you think?"

"Well, I got something stranger than that," Francis said. "I remember being told when I was a real young boy, that I had a twin brother by the name of Henry."

“You don’t say,” Henry answered.

“Yeah, I do say and the more I look at you I think there may be something to that.”

“How long have you been living here?” Henry asked.

"Most of my life, as well as I can remember."

“Do you like it here?” Henry inquired.

“Not really, but I think I’ve just gotten used to it. Nobody I’ve met really likes it here.”

“Back to this twin brother topic,” Henry continued,” there’s this thing called DNA. It would tell us for sure if we were related. That is if you have an interest in that sort of thing?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of DNA.”

"Listen,” Henry suggested," I live in this great big old house by myself, and it gets very lonely there, so I’ve got a crazy idea. Would you like to move in with me? It won’t cost you anything, and you will get some new clothes and eat rather well also. I found the best cook in the world. You just won’t believe me until you try her cooking. She’s simply terrific.”

“Well, do you want to do this DNA thing if I say yes?” Francis asked.

"Not necessarily, if it's all right with you I’d just as soon not know either way," Henry replied.

"All righty then, I think we got us a deal," Francis answered.

Henry fell into deep thought for just a moment. He couldn’t help but smile and looked forward to his new life with his newfound brother, at least that’s what he and Francis wanted to believe. It didn't matter to either one of them whether it was true or not.  They both needed something or someone to hold onto and probably had what is understood to be Divine intervention. But, who knows?

They knew it was most likely true because of their instant bond, a very special moment for both of them. Then there was that smile both displayed that somehow would just sneak up on you.  “Moments of joy and relief are the only ones worth remembering,” Henry told Francis.

“Well, I don’t know about that because this is my first moment of joy that I can remember in a long-long time, and I have got to tell you that I think I like it, yeah, I think I like it a lot.”

Henry put his arm around Francis and said, “Let’s go home, my new brother. For me, this is the best moment of joy I can remember and I also like it a lot.”

Francis remarked, “Shouldn’t we tell someone we’re leaving or sign some papers or something?”

“Don’t worry,” Henry exclaimed, “Nobody around here is going to ask me a darn thing. You see I just gave these people a little donation. Talk about a joyous moment”-------------The End