Giuseppe

A good day never started without sirens. Lucky for Giuseppe, that was everyday. Long Island was good for that, at least. Giuseppe never minded his days starting out with the blaring sounds of sirens rushing past his apartment building. Sometimes it wasn't even an emergency. The old apartment buildings that lined Storyland lane had faulty wiring all throughout, which would cause a false fire alarm to go off. The fire alarm would then trigger the alarm at the fire station and cause those big red engines to answer the call as quickly as possible. Thus the sirens. Sirens not only signal other cars to move out of the way in a hurry, but they also were the perfect alarm clock to start the day. The other residents in Giuseppe's building never minded the sirens either.

They were all usually awake before then. Elderly people don't seem to sleep much in the morning. Probably because they all were dead asleep by 3:00pm. Giuseppe knew this because his upstairs neighbor, Curtis, could be heard shuffling around at four in the morning most every morning. Giuseppe never understood this. He wasn't like the other elderly residents that presided in his building. Though a man in his early seventies, Giuseppe still felt like a young man, who could sleep through the night and not be bothered to wake up till about seven or eight the next morning. His dinner time wasn't until seven or eight in the evening anyway, which was vastly different than his neighbors. Some of whom were eating their dinner at four in the afternoon. No, Giuseppe is a young man in an old man's body.

That was one of the reasons he and his son never saw eye to eye. Giuseppe would always tease George that he was the old man in the family. George never liked that statement, and at his mother's funeral, George told Giuseppe how he felt about it in a fit of heartbroken rage. It had put a strain on their relationship ever since. Giuseppe never harbored ill will toward his son after that, but things were never the same. Now, Giuseppe lies in his bed, in his modest sized apartment, alone, and listening to the sirens. It was Tuesday, cold and raining. There wasn't a reason for Giuseppe to get out of bed, except for his need to go to the bathroom. After the sirens had finally faded out Giuseppe turned to face his bedside clock. It read 8:12. That was a decent time to wake up.

With a sigh and a grunt Giuseppe managed to pull himself up to a sitting position at the edge of his bed. Waking up, for Giuseppe, had been getting harder and harder the last month and a half. Giuseppe was never very good with the winter months about getting out of bed. Even his wife would have trouble getting him motivated for the day. With her gone, he didn't have anyone to tell him that his favorite breakfast of pancakes and sausage were on the table waiting for him. Now, Giuseppe begrudgingly gets out of bed, but only because his bladder told him so. He walks down the hall past his office, to go to the restroom. He had accidentally left the toilet seat up again. Diane would always give him a hard time about the toilet seat being up. Seeing this made his heart break.

“I’m sorry hun.” Giuseppe whispered to himself in his cold tiled bathroom. As he finishes up his business, he can hear the rain hitting the metal gutters at a steady pace. It sounded like a real torrential downpour, no wonder there were so many sirens this morning. Giuseppe wanted to get a better view of the Tuesday he had awoken to. From the bathroom he made his way to the kitchen. The large bay window allowed him to see his street, and the surrounding complexes. The trees in the front were bare. All their leaves had since fallen away. There was a man and his dog walking on the sidewalk. It looked like the man was almost pleading with his dog to go to the bathroom, so they both could get back inside to their dry home. Cars lined the streets, he could see the water building behind their tires. An altogether dreary day.

Giuseppe stood at his kitchen window a little longer staring blankly at the outside. There was nothing to look at, and yet he could not take himself away from it. Then, as if right on cue, there were more sirens. These sirens however seemed to have been getting louder, instead of fading away into the distance. All of a sudden, red and blue lights could be seen reflecting off the wet cars. First, came the fire engine, then, minutes later the paramedics arrived. The police were the last one to make it on the scene. This was an interesting development in the morning. Giuseppe was able to tear himself from the window to start making his coffee. Just as he was pouring his coffee grounds into his coffee maker, he could hear heavy footsteps in the hallways. That was not a good sign.

He finished prepping his coffee and walked to his door to peer through the eye hole. His heart dropped when he saw a body being taken away on a stretcher. That wasn’t an everyday occurrence. It caused Giuseppe to think about his own mortality. The phone ringing, derailed his train of thought. Giuseppe didn’t get many phone calls since his wife had passed. It gave him quite the start, making his heart race. He almost chuckled to himself thinking if he did end up having a heart attack it would be a good thing that the paramedics were already at his apartment building. This type of dark humor would sometimes get a chuckle out of Diane, but never out of serious George. The phone kept ringing as Giuseppe grabbed at it from the kitchen table.

“Hello?” Giuseppe managed to finally say.

“Hey Pop, how are you doing?” It was George. This was an incredibly pleasant surprise that brightened the gray corners of Giuseppe’s apartment.