Charlie And Midge - Chapter 13

Charlie And Midge

A Novel

By Paul McCann

Chapter 13

 

Stage left

After the death of Paddy , Midges mother suddenly took to the bed and her health started to deteriorate . Midge and Charlie moved in with her on the farm to look after her . Even though Charlie and Midge had done all they could for her, it was all to no avail as she seemed to have just lost the will to live . She refused to go to hospital or to see a doctor and eventually she also passed away peacefully in her sleep  . The morning Midge had found her Mother had died , she was able to accept her death in a compassionate way .

When she went to tell Charlie that morning , she said , .

‘Well now at least , now they can both be together again Charlie .“     

“Oh Midge , is she gone “

Charlie immediately went to give her a hug and there were no tears of sorrow just tears of a loving compassion and letting go of someone who no longer wanted to live .

After the funeral , many things surfaced . They had to sell the farm and pay all of the people who had been working aro8und the place to keep the farm functioning in its every day operations . Midge and Charlie were shocked to find out that most of the workers on the farm had not been paid since Paddy took ill and not one of them had ever complained or asked for wages .

Midge and Charlie hired an accountant to help them sort out all of the money that was owed to everyone of the workers . Then there were other bills that were long outstanding to be considered .

The regular farrier’s work , the maintenance of equipment , the petrol and oil that’s had been supplied , transportation costs of and seed and grain produce that had been delivered .

After the farm was sold most of the money went to settle overdue accounts unpaid wages and other debts . Charlie and Midge refused to look at applying for bankruptcy and made sure everything and everyone got what they were owed . Once everything was settled they made their exit from the farm and returned to safe harbour to resume life as normal again .

Because Charlie and Midge had decided not to have any children , mainly due to the fact that Charlie had a fit all those years ago , since that day, he had never had another fit since .

The fact they had no children of their own , it opened up other interests in both their lives with a variety of activities for their mind, body and soul .

They were always open to new challenges and with the two of them against the world  they had set sail in uncharted waters to places where  they had never been to try things they had never done before .

Safe Harbour put together a theatre company and began to  read some books that could be performed as plays for the lovers of live theatre  .

Charlie and Midge were interested in joining the theatre group so after speaking to the director they were invited to join in the weekly get togethers , at the community arts hall . The gatherings were a  good way to get to know others in the group as well as forming a network of people who had an interest in performing and producing live theatre on stage  for the pubic to enjoy .  The regular readings also were a way to brainstorm new ideas on dynamics that would add to the visual impact of the performances they could provide for their audiences .

Before each new production they would rehearse once a week instilling confidence and strengthening the character roles of each member as well as  the memorising  and delivery of spoken lines from each character in all the scripts they read together .

They would always bring Lucky because he liked being in the company of the people there and everyone loved to see him as well .

Lucky was also a bit of an actor too who liked an audience to perform to .  The group were deciding there next production and it would be one of Sean O’Casey’s works , either  “Shadow Of A Gunman or “The Plough And The Stars . The had a few new talented members who would be playing out the leading roles under the direction of Sean Brannigan the producer  .

Poor Charlie and Midge were often getting smaller roles to play , due to the fact that they were getting older now and often had trouble remembering their lines and when to come in . Although they persevered both Charlie and Midge decided to make an exit from the group to try something else .

Charlie came up with a few ideas and proposed that they try poetry reading with a small group of poets from the local community hall who met once a month to read their own poems . They were a committed group of poets .who had been together for many years with several anthologies of their poems that they had self published and sold at some of the local markets .   

Charlie and Midge never had written any poems of their own but thought they could read some of the works of their favourite writers .

Midge loved the work of William Butler Yeats and often spoke about his life before reading some of his poems . One of her favourite introductions was ,

“I can’t imagine why anyone would give up a lucrative career as a lawyer to write poetry and become poor and dedicate his life to writing poetry so I think I’ll read some of his poems to you in tribute to the sacrifice that he made for poetry back in his day”

Then she would start to read one of Yeats poems  .

Charlie loved the work of James Joyce and he would always talk about him before reading his work .

“I have to admire people who don’t agree with war and there are some people who take an exit from life to write a book or create something worthwhile when war rises and takes hold of the world . I also admire people who play with the English grammar and make up their own rules about full stops and commas “ Then he would share a few stories about James Joyce .

Although most of the poets appreciated Charlie and Midge , they seemed a little distant towards them because they were not writing anything original and preferred original poets so they could continue selling anthologies at the markets for some extra money ,  Midge said to Charlie one day ,

“ Charlie , I was thinking , maybe we could try to ask the local primary school . if they’d let us read poetry to the children in their classes . It would be an experience for us and them to discover poetry and stories from the past:”

Charlie was all for it and responded ,

“Now Midge , that’s a great idea you have there. We’ll go and do that “

The principle of the local primary school Mr Westblade was happy to accommodate Charlie and Midge’s proposition to start a poetry awareness project at the school and so and they were given an hour a day once a week to go into one of the classes to share poetry and stories with the school children . Charlie and Midge were happy to have been made welcome and were soon comfortable in their new teachers aid  positions .

The encouragement they also received from the children at school was amazing .  

For many years Charlie and Midge had just abandoned themselves to all the things they knew and stepped out into places where they had never been to discover pictures of life that they could put on canvas .

Midge said once ,

“Charlie sometimes we must leave all we know to find a picture of life and capture that and put it in a framed canvas for others to see “

So every now and them they would pack some brushes , pencils and crayons and paints into a suitcase and going around to find inspiration for their art . Wherever they  went they would  sketch a few images of life on bits of paper for future reference on a larger canvas . They never really planned any destination usually they would just get a bus or a train or a boat to discover somewhere out there to paint of sketch .

The had done some city scapes with people on motor bikes and in their cars on their way to work , they did some land scapes of hills and mountains , rivers , fields and  meadows abundant with colour and life , they had sea scapes with ships on oceans and fishermen in boats .

They loved to get away discovered new places to paint and practice their art in a  passionate way  . They lived from moment to moment .
They had a large collection life’s images  on canvases and paper , of hidden spaces around the country .

They both had self retired years before,  but the money they thought would see them through their lives , was soon spent . This lifestyle of travel for arts sake had soaked up most of their income that they had in the bank and now at retirement age Charlie had thought it might be time to apply for the pension .

When the time would be right Charlie and Midge planned to have an exhibition of all their paintings on display in Safe Harbour for people to see  .

They also hoped to invite professional art dealers and business people to come to their art exhibition where it was all ready to happen .

Charlie and Midge sometimes sold some art works at a few of the local markets when they were getting short of money . It was always an interesting day when they did that . All kinds of people would stop and look at their paintings asking ,

“ How much for that one there called “Bread On The Water “

Them Charlie would reply ,

“Well tell me how much are you prepared to pay for it :”

Then after a while of bantering and bargaining the artwork would be sold for a reasonable price .

Then you would have others that would come and say things like ,

“I’ll give you double what you want for that picture there  of the thatched roof cottage “

One day a lady approached Midge and said ,

“ How long did it take you to paint the lonely willows there ?”

And Midge would whisper ,

“Not long enough.“

So many people would approached and you never knew the kind of comments people might say .  Once a young schoolgirl asked ,
“Is it true that art needs to be found in lonely spots .“
Midge would smile and said ,
“Well m not always you see , you need to listen to life and try to follow where it tells you to go . So then when you go there you would try to capture that place in stillness or in commotion that you find there .”

Charlie and Midge had propelled themselves into a daily routine of living , loving , laughing and letting things happen  .

Time passed them by in the blink of an eye and when their bodies began to feel the aches and pains and the shakes and strains that both realised they were getting old and had to slow down a little .

Midge looked a Charlie one morning and said ,

“Charlie you know how you’ve been talking about getting a pension?”

Charlie said ,

“Yeah why Midge ?“

He replied and Midge said

‘Let’s just do it “

 

End Of Chapter 13

Charlie And Midge

A Novel - By Paul McCann

 

link to chapter 14

https://www.abctales.com/story/mcscraic/charlie-and-midge-chapter-14

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