Alone

"Are you kidding me?" Jacob yelled across his front lawn at the elderly man swinging on the porch opposite him. The man wore a worn-out sweater that had obviously been knitted just for him, some time ago. It was loose in all the right places and tight where it needed to be.

"No," the man laughed, "when I was your age gasoline was only twenty-five cents a gallon."

"I wish I was alive back then," Jacob called out as he finished his cup of morning coffee. "Be right back." He told the man.

"Sure," the old man looked into his own half-empty coffee cup and shrugged, " I could use a refill too."

They both headed inside. Jacob was a well-educated man, tall and dark-skinned, with brown hair and eyes to match. He sported a scar on his chin from his days as a high school football star but it was nothing more than a good story to him these days. Not like other men who used their old glories to define who they were in their middle years.

Jacob rambled through his living room in his pursuit of coffee, walking between his son and the television. "Dad," David screeched in agony, "you got my guy killed."

"Good," Jacob told him as he continued on into the kitchen, "now maybe you'll go outside and play."

"We're in a quarantine dad," David whined pitifully at him, "nobody can go outside."

"You can play in the yard," Jacob informed him, "in fact, I insist. Go play in the yard."

"But Dad," David groaned, "none of the guys can come over. It's boring out there."

"Learn to self-entertain David," Jacob came walking back through he paused to flick the power button on the Xbox. David sprang up from the couch. "Dad! You didn't even let me save it!"

"Well, that just means you'll already know how to do it tomorrow. Now go outside and get some sunlight and exercise."

"But Dad!" David stomped his foot angrily but Jacob stood his ground.

"Now!"

"What am I suppose to do?" David demanded as he pulled his sneakers on.

"Why don't you clean the garage?" Jacob suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. He would not mind if David chose to clean the garage for him.

"Oh come on Dad," David stormed behind him toward the front door throwing his arms around wildly, "that's your job!"

"Then you better find something to do on your own then," Jacob warned him as he settled back down on his front steps to continue his morning conversation with his neighbor.

Across the street, Marvin had walked into his own empty living room and sadly shaken his head at the yarn covered spot on the end of the couch. It was a shrine, and he knew it, but he could not force himself to remove Esthers' last work in progress. She had been knitting him a summer sweater out of that thin soft yarn he liked so much. It had even been in his favorite color, grey. She always knew just what to make him and he loved her for it, even now when she was gone home to the Lord.

Marvin had been quite alone since Esthers' death, the neighbors had all come by, of course, to pay their respects and some had even stopped by to check on him from time to time. But that had ended a few months after it started and he was left alone with his empty house and his grief.

No one had meant to ignore or neglect him it was just that they were all so busy with their own lives. Rushing here and there, never stopping for more than a wave hello, or goodbye. He had sat on his porch swing every day the year following her death watching as the people who considered themselves his neighbors and friends could find no time for a conversation with the old retired man who had too much time on his hands. They had rushed their children off to choir practice, karate practice, band practice, football practice, drama club, debate club, and any number of other sports and practices before and after rushing off to their own activities. There had been proms, graduations, funerals, weddings, and various other life events. Hardly had anyone thought to invite him to anything other than funerals and even then only if they happened to see him at the appropriate time. Many of them had turned their eyes away when they happened to see him sitting there sadly alone because they wished not to feel bad about having no time for him. He understood of course, in a way, for he too had been young and thoughtless once. He too had walked past the elderly forgetting that they would not always be there when he looked back. It was only now when he was there himself that he realized the wrong he had inadvertently done to his own elders in his youth.

Then about a month back something unusual had happened. The country had come to a standstill. People were getting sick, he did not completely understand everything that the news outlets were telling him, and many of them told him conflicting things. All that he was certain about was that people were not to leave their homes unless they had no other choice and people his age who had to go out were dying.

At first, he had been at a loss as to what to do. He had been needing to go to the grocery store when all of this started. Esther had been the one to keep track of all that; food, medicine, the bank book. She had taken over all of it once they were married so that all he had to do was work and not worry about mundane things. They had raised two twin boys, one of which had died in some desert war Marvin knew very little about and the other had taken his own life out of grief. This left Marvin alone for the death of Esther and all that followed.

The regular newsman, the one Marvin trusted to tell him the truth, had suddenly gotten ill. He was an older man like Marvin and that scared him more than anything else the media told him. How was he to get his groceries, his medicine, or anything he needed if going outside of his yard meant death?

But then Jacob had knocked on his front door. Marvin had nearly refused to answer afraid of what germ might invade his home if he did. But Jacob had always been the most attentive neighbor, even when he had little time for hellos and goodbyes he made a point of making them so that Marvin at least was spoken to twice a day every day. "Marvin," Jacob had called through the front door, "I'm going to stand in the front yard so you can come out on the porch. I'd like to talk to you."

Marvin had waited a few moments before looking through the window to make sure Jacob really was off his porch. He stepped outside, and his whole world changed.

"Hey Marvin," Jacob had greeted him, "how you doing?"

"A little scared," Marvin had confessed, "but not sick. You?"

"Oh we're not sick either," he had thrown his thumb over his shoulder to indicate David who was mowing the grass while grumbling very loudly. "Stuck at home though, just like everybody else. Anyway, I came over to see if you needed anything from the grocery store. I know it's a little strange but I read on Facebook where people were helping their elderly neighbors stay home by buying their groceries."

"Oh," Marvin had felt a little embarrassed at first but Jacob did not seem to be making fun of him or teasing, and he did need groceries after all. "Well, if it's no trouble. I could use a few things."

Jacob had smiled warmly, happy to be of some use in this time of uselessness. "Tell you what," he had instructed Marvin, "write a list of what you need. Leave it on the steps under a rock so it won't blow away and I'll get them for you when I head out in an hour. Is that enough time?"

"Yes," Marvin had readily agreed.

From that day on he and Jacob had sat across from one another each morning drinking coffee and discussing life. Jacob told him about the sudden death of his wife Mary four years ago and the troubles he had raising a pre-teen son alone. Marvin talked of losing his wife slowly to a disease with no name and how frustrating it had been to know that there was not only nothing they could do to help his wife but they did not even know what was killing her.

Suddenly, Marvin shook the memories free and continued on to the kitchen for his coffee.

Outside David was tossing his baseball high into the air before running under it so to catch it with his bare hands. Jacob sipped his warm coffee and smiled to himself, the boy was co-ordinated, slightly muscular, and, despite his liking of video games, had a tan indicative of a young man who spent plenty of time outside. To Jacob that was an accomplishment.

Marvin meandered back out onto his porch. "I was thinking," he called out to catch Jacobs' attention once more, "we could play a game."

"What kind of game?" Jacob asked curious as to what the old man had in mind.

"You ever played chess?" He asked hopefully.

"Sure, when I was a kid but," Jacob shrugged at the distance between them, "how are we going to play from either side of the street?"

"Same way people play through the mail," Marvin told him happily. He had not played a single game of chess since Esther died. He was rather fond of the game and hoped Jacob was a decent opponent although any opponent was better than none.

So Marvin had dug out the chessboard he and Esther use to play on, he had deposited it in the bottom of the closet angrily the day of her funeral. It had only stood as a reminder of their unfinished life together. A game they would never finish, she had been winning and he relished the smile she gave him when she won and now he would never see it again on this earth.

So, Marvin had dug through the junk at the bottom of his hall closet collecting all the pieces so they could play.

"Knight to E5," Jacob called out later that evening as the game was progressing. Surprisingly even David had come over to listen to the game as it went on. "Dad, he's going to capture your knight," David had protested.

"Shh," Jacob had warned him, "sometimes to win the war you have to sacrifice a few men."

Marvin had chuckled over this remembering a day, long ago, when he had been teaching Esther to play and had told her the same words. He was happier than he had been in quite some time. Jacob was not such a bad opponent, this was their third and final game of the night and Marvin had lost one and won one.

"Good advice," he had called out jovially.

"What is all the yelling about?" A voice had called out of the dusk a few houses up the road.

"Just playing chess Mrs. Nowaski," Marvin had called out in a sing-song voice, "and I'm about to win."

"Says you," Jacob had called out playfully.

"Well all that yelling is keeping me awake," she had complained without ever leaving the shadows of her porch as if they protected her from the two men.

"What's her problem?" David had demanded irritably. He was actually having fun with his dad for the first time in ages and here she was ruining it.

"She's bored and lonely like the rest of us," Jacob explained.

"Trying to sleep her life away," Marvin called out loud enough for her to hear, "if you ask me."

"Well," she huffed as she opened her front door to go back inside, "no one did." She hollered as she slammed the door shut.

"Guess we ought to call it a night," Marvin called into the darkening street after a thoughtful pause, "might be bothering some other people who might be too polite to speak up."

Jacob shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I should start dinner anyway. See you in the morning?"

"First thing," Marvin called back.

As Jacob headed for his door Marvin called out once more. "Hey, Jacob," Jacob turned to hear what the old man had to say. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"For what?" Jacob asked confused. "I haven't beaten you yet." They both chuckled.

"For being nice to an old man when you didn't have to," Marvin told him as his voice grew thick.

"It's nothing Marvin, you're my friend, and we care about you," he said the last as he tossed his arms over Davids' shoulders.

"Yeah," David called out, "you're pretty cool for an old guy."

"Well," Marvin struggled on, "you've made me very happy. And I just wanted you to know that I'm glad you're my neighbor."

"Whatever Marvin," Jacob laughed, "don't think I'm gonna take it easy on you tomorrow. I know just how to beat your gambit, wait and see."

Marvin laughed. "Oh I can't wait, until tomorrow." He waved into the growing darkness until he saw the light from Jacobs' front door disappear.

That night Marvin ate his spam and eggs in front of a silent television. He was tired of the news, of the world, and all the bad things happening there. He thought his day, about the kindness Jacob had shown him by playing chess and talking with him, about the way David had admitted to liking him, and he laughed over Mrs. Nowaski, half his age and acting much older than he ever would be, thank God.

After a while, he washed his meager dishes, showered off the light film of grime from the day, then crawled into his bed and spoke his habitual prayers. "Lord, please tell Esther I missed her today and hope to see her soon. Forgive my son Nathaniel for his dark sin, show him your love and mercy for I ope to hold him in my arms soon, and keep Byron in your loving arms until I get there to tell him how proud I am that he died like a man. Watch over my friend Jacob and his son David as they go through these hard times. Thank you for all that you have given me, thank you for ..."

Suddenly his voice trailed off, his arms grew numb, a heaviness settled in his chest, and he knew that it was time to go. He did not cry out nor look to his phone for help. He simply smiled as he considered the best few weeks of his life that had surprised here at the end.

The next morning Jacob waited for his old friend to come out but he did not show. Around noon he knocked on the door, worry filling his brow. When no answer came he tried the knob but it was locked so he had no choice but to call the police.

By the time they found Marvin, eternally asleep in his bed, there was a peaceful smile on his face and the paramedics said there had been no pain.

On his nightstand sat a small scrap of paper with a few hastily written words. When Jacob saw them a cry escaped his trembling lips for it read. 'Have the set, teach the boy, one day it may bring him a life-saving friend too."

That night Jacob sat across the table from David as he studied the chessboard intently. He had lost twice already but was determined to beat his father before the night was through.

"Come on," Jacob had encouraged him, "look at it from a different angle is you have to."

"Huh?" David looked at him confused. "What does a different angle have to do with it?"

"Well," Jacob explained, "when you see things from the other persons' point of view. You begin to understand things differently. In chess and in life this is true."

"How so?" David asked as he scooted his chair to the left side of the board to study it from there as his father had suggested.

"Think about Marvin," Jacob had told him, "he was all alone over there. No one really paid attention, not until we were all stuck at home with nowhere to go. It was then that we realized what he was going through."

"But," David thought it over, "we always said hello?"

"Yeah," Jacob went on, "but imagine how lonely you would be if the only thing anyone ever said to you was hello and goodbye."

From that day on David looked at the world a little differently. He stopped by porch swings to speak to his neighbors being sure to say more than just hello.

"Okay, Dad," David moved his pawn only to discover that he was in checkmate once again. "Ah," he called out as Jacob won.

"Dad, let's do something else," he pleaded ready to stop losing for the night.

"Like what?" Jacob asked already sure he knew the answer.

"Play a game with me," David smiled mischievously at him.

"Alright, what game?" They moved to the couch as David pulled out a stack of video games.

Outside Marvins' porch was dark, his house was silent, and the wind blew a chill wind across the lawn. The next day people would begin to arrive, nieces and nephews, a younger sister, and a few cousins all looking to see what they could get before it disappeared into someone else's pocket.

But it mattered little to those who had sat on the porch keeping one another company when all the world was losing itself to fear and madness.