I Think I Can Make it Now

Johnny was the first to admit he was having a mid life crisis.

In his mid forties, he felt his life was not so much stuck in a rut but well and truly wedged. He was stuck in a dead-end job which paid reasonably well but his hard-earned salary soon disappeared at the end of the month on the mortgage, loans and other bills which seemed to grow with each passing month.

Many of his so-called friends only got in touch when they wanted something. Even Johnny's family seemed to have given up on him.

His marriage to Lorraine had survived many a crisis in the twenty-five years they had been together but now even that had turned sour. But this was, in part, Johnny's own doing. For years he had held a secret passion for his next door neighbour. Deirdre was a very attractive, buxom woman who had recently split from her husband. Johnny popped in one day to fix her washing machine and previously dormant feelings between them stirred. There would be daily text messages, e-mails, sneaky peeks out the net curtains; Johnny suddenly felt alive again. He had forgotten what it felt like to be in love, to want someone, to be the centre of their attention.

It was, of course, only a matter of time before Lorraine became suspicious. She caught sight of the text messages and e-mails from her neighbour to her husband. The final straw was when she round to Deirdre's house and saw the shadow of them embraced in the hallway. With tears streaming down her cheeks and a rage like an inferno, Lorraine stormed back home, packed her case and left the home she had shared with Johnny for nearly three decades. As the door slammed shut with a force that damn near registered on the Richter Scale, Johnny peeked through the lacy curtains. Realising what had happened he went outside but his appeals for his wife to come back were merely half-hearted.

Big Tam from three doors down was witness to it all. 'Johnny' he asked tentatively, 'is there anything I can do?'

Johnny looked at him thoughtfully. 'Aye, there is, Tam.'

Tam gave him a wistful look. 'Whit?'

'Look all around, there’s nothin' but blue skies. Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies, because...

I Can See Deirdre Now, Lorraine Has Gone....'