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Bill realised his heart wasn’t in this anymore.
“You sure those figures are right, love?”
He rarely enjoyed these round-tables, papers everywhere, Jean with her lists and he with the calculator. Their original time-frame was for him to retire at 65. Jean was sorted, her pension cutting in just before Christmas. However, being beyond prying government eyes and travelling might just be beyond their resources. But, what can you expect when you leave school at 15 and work for the county council as a pen-pusher or with DJs fitting shoes in their Market Street store. Other than a few measly dollars in super, their only asset was the family home. Being independent meant selling up and moving somewhere cheaper.
“Have another look through the listings, Bill, and include Merry Beach this time. There must be something there for under three-fifty.” She licked her forefinger and attacked the pages. Bill sighed.
6 comments:
Julie, what a wonderful project. I can't wait to see what's coming next.
Yes, planning for retirement is a troublesome subject. You've caught so many of the issues here in a short piece.
If course the government doesn't want us to retire ... just stick to the treadmill until you drop.
BTW I just realised that in the last couple of posts you have done a great job of drawing out issues through the stories without needing to overtly expressing an opinion.
Ahhhh ... goodie ... thank you.
Two weekends ago, I went to an all-dayer at the Writers' Centre entitled "Show don't tell" where I sorta learnt how to do that. Took me a while to put it into practice.
You should see the first draft each time - how embarrassing! But I am becoming more adept at showing and it is coming more easily.
It is still hard to get the story to flow. I sometimes fuffle around for 4 or 5 false starts until I get a "theme" that I like.
Thank you for noticing.
Another thing I have realised, too, is that I have more "pointed" photos to work with. I can be walking along when I see a "riff" staring me in the face. Bit scarey, really. I have images stashed and dated until just after Easter, all ready to riff. I am away for a week, but don't want to write them until just beforehand because I am aware of the maturation that is occurring in the writing the more I do of it.
Good issue brought out here.
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