Wasted Time

Wasted Time

By John Stuart

Tom is standing in front of a full length mirror adjusting his bow tie. He’s dressed finely in a tuxedo. He looks at himself and admires his thick brown hair. He calls out to his maid.
“Esmerelda!”
“Yes sir?” Esmerelda replies?
“Have my Jaguar brought around. I’ll be taking it to the awards banquet tonight.”
“As you wish sir.” Esmerelda bows slightly, and then leaves the room.
And what a fine room it is. In the corner of the room is a plush king-sized bed with the finest linens money can buy. A 600-thread-count Egyptian cotton bed set, pure white. Next to it is a dresser made of the finest oak with solid gold cuff links sitting on top of it. Next to the cuff links is a money clip with a wad of hundred dollar bills. A crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. To Tom’s left are several plate glass windows overlooking a circular driveway.
As Tom dusts off his jet-black, Italian leather shoes, his silver Jaguar pull up to the front of the house.
Just then Esmerelda walks into the room.
“Ah, Esmeralda, good. Has my wife arrived yet?”
“What?” she says “Who are you talking to?”
Tom is a little shocked by the rudeness of his help.
“Now, look here Esmerelda…”
“My name isn’t Esmerelda, it’s Ann, and you know that.”
“When did you change your name?” Tom asks.
“I never changed my name! Are you fantasizing again?”
Tom is a little confused, but then regains his composure.
“Of course not. I don’t have time for that. I’m going to an awards banquet.”
Ann sighs.
“There’s no awards banquet Tom. You need to come back to reality.”
Tom stops and stares, and then continues.
“I’m receiving an award for my performance in my latest movie.”
“You’ve never been in any movies Tom. You worked minimum wage jobs your whole life.”
A sharp pain starts to form behind Tom’s right eye. He blinks, and then responds.
“I don’t think a minimum wage worker could afford this tuxedo.”
“You’re not wearing a tuxedo!” Ann responds.
Tom looks down. He’s wearing a pair of dirty jeans with holes in them, and a ragged t-shirt with the words ‘respect my authority’ written on it with a picture of Eric Cartman just below it. Tom closes his eyes. When he opens them, he looks around the room. The plush king-sized bed is now a single cot. No sheets, just a dirty mattress. There’s no dresser, just a cardboard box with Tom’s dirty clothes in it, and certainly no gold cuff links or money clip. The plate glass windows are in reality a simple white wall, and Tom’s shoes are nothing more than a pair of old, worn-out tennis shoes.
“What happened to all my money?” he asks her.
“You never had any.” she tells him “You worked minimum wage jobs your whole life, and when you got off, you went home and played video games.”
“But, I remember my career so clearly.” He tells her.
“You never had a career Tom. Just a string of meaningless jobs and a mountain of debt.”
“No, you’re wrong.” He tells her “I remember I was in this one movie where I fought a giant octopus looking thing with a lot of tentacles.”
“That was Final Fantasy X.” she tells him “You used to play it all the time.”
Tom looks at Ann. She’s dressed in scrubs with her dark brown hair pulled back into a pony-tail. Tom tries to remember.
“I was in the movie Rapunzel. Did you see it? I rescued her from an evil monster in a castle.”
“That wasn’t Rapunzel, that was Zelda, as in The Legend of…”
Tom begins to get depressed.
“Face it, you did nothing but play video games your whole life.”
“So, this isn’t a mansion?”
Ann smiles sarcastically.
“Hardly.” She says “It’s a homeless shelter.”
“But, what about my wife?”
“You don’t have a wife! You spent your whole life living with your mother and playing games. And then when your mother died, you couldn’t pay the rent so you were kicked out. That’s how you ended up here. What did you think, some great girl was just going to knock on your door one day and say ‘Here I am’?”
“But, I remember. I remember how we met. We met online. We talked to each other through e-mail, and then fell in love.”
“You’re so pathetic! That was a movie. That was ‘You’ve Got Mail’ with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. You just watched it last night!”
“So, I’m not going to an awards banquet?”
“The only place you’re going is into the other room where I can give you dinner and your diabetes medicine.”
Tom glances at himself in the mirror. There are grey streaks running all through his hair.
“How old am I?” he sadly asks her.
“You’re in your fifties.” she tells him.
Tom lowers his head.
“And I really spent my whole life playing video games?”
“I’m afraid so.” she tells him.
“Why didn’t I do anything with my life?”
“You were too busy.” she tells him “Busy getting a high score, busy getting an ancient artifact, busy rescuing a princess.”
Tom stares into space in disbelief.
“So I never had a career?”
“No, but you did get your characters up levels. That’s something, right? Ann says sarcastically.
For the first time in his life, Tom is not in the mood to play anymore. He looks up at her with sadness and regret in his eyes.
“All these years, wasted?”
Ann slowly nods her head.
“Yeah, you did.” she tells him.
“Could I….do something now?” he asks her.
“Do what?” she asks “You have no skills. At least none an employer would want. I don’t think anybody is looking for ‘princess saving’ skills.”
Ann puts her arm around Tom and leads him out of the room and into the eating hall.
“Besides,” she says “You’re too old now. Employers are looking for people younger, stronger, hungrier.”
Tom lowers his head, and then looks at Ann.
“So what do I do now?” he asks.
“Same as everybody else here.” she says “Sit around and wait to die.”
Tom lowers his head and begins to cry. Ann rubs his back.
“Come on,” she says “it’s not so bad. Sit here, I’ll see if I can get you some pudding.”
The End.