Robert Smith

Robert was not sure how he should fill the time now that he was retired. Retired? Was that him now? He did not like the sound of that. He began filling his afternoons at the library searching the shelves for new hobbies, or anyway he could fill the time. There was so much time now. The library had become his hobby and he started rearranging books as he returned them to the shelves. They never seemed to be in perfect order, but the call numbers. He was there and he liked things to be precise.

It had been named Smith Jewelry Company and Robert liked it that way, but he was nearly out of money. The sign being installed read Chicago Jewelry Row and it felt like a slap in the face. Robert's ode to his father had ended; he needed to find time and space to reflect on that. With the store sold, he would have a lot of free time and no worries about money for the foreseeable future. The concern on his mind at the moment was what would he do with such a changed life. His days had been roughly the same since he was a teenager. Change was not something he knew how to handle or understand.

He sat on a bench near a busy intersection, across from the park. The sun bathed his skin as he read the newspaper. His pants did not reach his shined black leather dress shoes, exposing thin checkerboard gray and black socks. He flipped the paper and shifted his tie, which was still pulled tight around his neck. Robert decided what his life was to be nearly forty years ago and had changed very little since then.

He started working in his father's jewelry shop shortly before the incident. Robert decided as he was looking upon his father's body in the casket that he would remember him best if he kept the shop running, and that became his only goal.