Generation Gap

Chapter 2: Sax and Whisky, Part 2

Joe leaned forward on his cane. "You keep your hands off the staff, and I will walk out of here and never bother you again. Bother that young man one more time, and I will take this club away from you."

"How dare you talk to me like this!" Her voice rose another octave. "I am retired now. I deserve everything I can get. Do you know what I had to put up with? Do you? No. But you stand here and preach at me about what I can and can't do to my staff. I own them."

"I think maybe it's time you went into the Home," Joe said quietly. "It is clear you aren't managing retirement well."

"NO!" she screamed and lunged at him. Joe lifted his cane and stopped her with it. She tried to bat it to one side to get to him, and he pushed a button on the handle. Twenty-thousand volts coursed through her and she dropped twitching to the floor. The not-quite-closed door burst open and the bartender ran in. He had his kit out, and was taking her pulse before his knees hit the floor.

"You may have killed her."

"I knew you were there," Joe said. "I figured you'd save her."

"And if I don't?"

"Then she won't have to spend the rest of her life in the Home, will she?"

The bartender stared at Joe.

"The law is the law, even for retirees. You may want to remember that if you live so long." Joe pointed at the woman on the floor. "Your boss forgot no one is above the law, so one way or the other, her happy retirement is over."

She coughed and her eyes opened.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm a Methuselah," Joe answered, "my job is reminding retirees they may have risen above the need to work, but no one is above the law.'

"I thought you were a myth." Her eyes closed, but tears out leaked anyway.

"Some days, I wish we were." Joe stepped aside to allow the transport crew in. They strapped the terrified woman onto the gurney and wheeled her out.

The music started up again in the club. Joe paused for a second then went back to his table to listen. He didn't get out very often any more. The music and the whisky mixed in his soul and washed it clean. For a while he let himself forget about the world and his place in it.