Life Experiences, BE THEY GOOD OR BAD

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

My friend, Mr. Posey...


The old man sat in a broken down and shabby little shack. Edged just a few yards above the river and a few yards north of the wooden bridge crossing that river. The road in front of his home was only about 7 feet away. He had a table sitting right outside that needed great repair (as did the front door) and it was there solely for playing dominoes.
In Spring , Summer and Fall --WITH WEATHER PERMITTING, George(that is his real name by the way, age 76),- would be up and out there waiting for his "regular customers." That is the four or five other old men that stopped by on a regular basis to sit most of the day playing dominoes with cantankerous ole George.
I was a new to "town living" young lad , had just been moved about two blocks away, after my father's death. My only escape from my infinitely deep pain became (when allowed), sitting in on the game when a vacant seat became available. Which happened on a regular basis as the five old men were not in the best of health. But George, cantankerous ole George always seemed to be healthy enough to come out with his ivory set of dominoes(ancient set) to wait for enough players to start the day's play! Play they had been carrying on for about twenty years!

Within a couple weeks after my initial introduction to this little "gang", I WAS ADOPTED IN BY ALL AS A NEW -REGULAR CUSTOMER!
It soon got so bad that I could not walk by on my way into town, without being called over to play a few hours!
Especially after old man Steve(Uncle Steve he was called) , got very sick and quit coming for about six months.
Now this playing started when I was age fifteen and went on for two years. One of the old men, was called Posey, he lived one block away and I'd walk him home after the game often because he would tell me much about my father's life from decades before my birth! He had told me upon our first meeting that he had known my father for over 40 years! We became good friends, me at age fifteen and he at age 79 !...
Thus when partners were to play as a team against another set of partners he always chose me to be his partner. It worked out great as we had about an 85% win ratio against the others regardless of how they partnered up!
Naturally this pleased us greatly and infuriated the living hell out of ole cantankerous George(who thought himself, the world's best domino player)!
Often so much so that he would start cursing, I mean real cursing in anger! And do so especially if he got stuck with that "damn double six domino"(as he cursed it),which did seem to happen to him on a regular basis, more than it did with the other three players at the table!
And when it did, he often would grab that cursed domino and throw it out into the road. This antic went on all summer until......

One early morn, in September, weather was cool and a very nice day, I went there to play with the old geezers(term said with great fondness).
As it happened I had walked by Posey's house on my way and met him coming out of his front yard. We walked slowly that day as he talked about his life and he stopped to rest on an old stump about halfway to George's shack. I COULD TELL SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH MY FRIEND BUT WHEN ASKED HE JUST REPLIED -HE'D HAD A BAD NIGHT'S SLEEP.
We must have talked for over an hour and he said he had rested enough, we walked on.
But I could tell he was "pissed off" at his weakness , illness and even his old age by comments he had previously made during our long conversation.

We arrived and George was sitting at the domino table talking to Walker(another old feller that sometimes played and played damn well).
Without even letting us say hello, George pops up to say- "Lets play doubles right off the bat today" "Shall we?"!
Now this was new as doubles(teams) were never played right of the bat , never! I was shocked and gave Posey that look..
He smiled and said to George, "Well why not George, you guys may even get lucky today and win one."
Now this comment- so very unusual for Posey to make, pleased the living hell out of me! But to ole cantankerous George it brought nothing but a damn very angry look!
Which sent me to cloud nine, as George was my least favorite of the five old men. As he was jealous of not only Mr. Posey's great playing abilities but even more so of, this young whipper snapper, that had showed up beating the old men on a regular basis playing heads up..(my dad taught me to play at age 5!)
And that compounded because Posey and I as a team where truly awesome- almost able to read each other hand through the backs of the dominoes--uncanny as hell it was !

WE SIT AND BEGIN TEAM PLAY...
After four defeats in a row, George and his partner asked for Posey and I to swap our seats, so as we each would be playing behind a different opponent!
THIS WAS AN UNUSUAL REQUEST BUT WE AGREED, KNOWING IT WAS GEORGE WANTING TO PLAY IN FRONT OF ME- SO AS TO CONTROL ME, AS HE HAD NO LUCK TRYING THAT WITH MR. POSEY!

Play resumes, we crush them next two games with even greater ease, winning by a much larger margin each time! George was now red-hot with ANGER.
Next game, I stick George with that "damn double six" and it pissed him off to the damn max..
He grabs it and throws it out into the middle of the road!
And that is when it happened- I saw Posey angry for the first time!
For Mr. Posey stood up, grabbed his walking cane and raised it over his head, as if to strike the(thoroughly "pissed off") ole cantankerous George!.......

to be continued later....(Posey shows George , how an honorable man acts)....-Tyr

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