EGON, I HARDLY KNEW YOU
Egon was a wonderful dancer, first thing...and then, he had bid for a dance with her at the raffle at the Folk Dance Group and that was a fine thing. She was thin at the time and was learning to dance. So it was fun to dance with him. and he told a great story too. The story was about how he once had been in Italy. He had been ten years old and was in the Scouts in Austria. His family had fled there from a small Slovanian Enclave of Germans during the Second World War. It was just Scouts - not a Brown Shirt or Pioneer thing or anything like that. Their Scout Leader had stood them all up on the border betweeen the two countries and then told them to pee into Italy. So they did. She found that very funny at the time...he was a Great Leader as a dancer. So he made her look Great as well. He had a lot of Friends at the Festival they were at. His art decorated the walls. He was popular with all these peiople she didn't know. So. She was very flattered. And happy to dance. Very Happy. He would be a good friend.
She told her husband about him, at home. They were seperated at the time, but he was still living at home and sleeping on the couch. She liked sleeping in their bed - now Her Bed - by herself. It was a fine thing not to have someone making her turn over and over all night, to stop her snoring. which didn't much work anyways...also, to stretch out. She was getting used to sleeping alone for the first time in years and years. it felt good - really, in an odd way....she and her soon-to-be ex-husbnd were being very civil. he was already dating, and told her about his dates. it was kind-of strange, but not much. he had always talked alot about himself their whole marriage. she knew much about his life. she wasn't sure what he knew about her at all. in her experience, men -generally, she thought - didn't know much about the women they were with. they told themselves stories about what their women were like...but they didn't always match who the women really were inside - sometimes, not even 'outside'...that was sure true for her. Her first husband didn't know her at all. Nothing. really Nothing. This husband now was a Good Man - but he too, knew Nothing about her. She felt pretty alone about that. but not lonely. just alone in her own views and thoughts and experiences. which was OK. So, he listened to her experiences at the Dance, but didn't care. since he didn't really hear her....
She kept dancing. no one minded at home. or anywhere else really. her ex moved out. really horrible roomates moved in for awhile. they were very neurotic and dirty and they brought the worst out of her, too. so she took in her daughter, who needed housing, and got rid of them, finally. while they were there, she started inviting him over for dinner and a hot tub. then they started sleeping together. it was all really comfortable and exciting at the same time. it was very nice and very different. He was a dancer of Swing and Cajun and Ballroom and Folk... and belonged to an Alpine Club that went hiking and did a lot of Dancing and singing and having dinners together and owning a big chalet on the side of a mountain in the area and another high in the mountains to the East, where they'd go to ski and have fun together. this was all a Lot of Fun! after the horrible couple moved out, and her daughter moved in, then her ex wanted to move in too, to get the house ready to put-up for sale...so she moved out with Egon. This was all very exciting....
She moved into his beautiful home in the hills with its respectable and lovely gardens and decors and woods and so on. They had parties together. A Cajun Food and Dance Party. A Country and Western Dance and Song Party...lots of people over for dinner. he had many friends with lots of music talent. they danced and sang with people at all sorts of events. They formed a Song Group to sing Irish for the Irish Party and to sing Hawaiian for the Hawaiian Party. To sing Alpine Songs - some in German - for the Festivals. They all practiced in his lovely big home. She was Very Happy. this was a fine contact inside with her Roots too...because her mom's family was from Bavaria. She bought derndles and started to play the German Concertina...she became a Good Cook. she was sure he understood her well, tho he didn't listen much to her stories and so on. but she was used to that anyways. so she didn't worry about it....
They made love often and at the Fireplace Fire in the living room, too, and were creative in this way and enjoyed each other. They both thought they had finally met 'The One'...somewhat without great fanfare, they were engaged to be married...they both even had jobs teaching at the same private school. He taught Art there part-time...she taught full-time - social studies and english classes and such. It was good work at a good school...so even their work was happy.
Then they started having a few troubles. for one, Egon had open heart surgery to have lots of bypasses. that was hard. he got a little more neurotic after that...pretty progressively...he had a prostate surgery too...both times got him down and he started acting strange...he had always had phobias about crossing bridges and going certain places at certain times. now he got really strange about fears and phobias in a couple of dozen ways...he also ended all their nice sex together and wouldn't even let her kiss him goodnight at night. he called it his post-cardiac psychosis and it sort-of was, really...he had quit working as an Art Teacher in a local Highschool and then quit working at the private school too...which he blammed on her. he said she had set the students up not to want to work with him. so he was getting a little paranoid, too...he kept worrying that they had lived together for almost seven years, so she might try to have a common law marriage decreed to get his money. she was very, very sad now, because he was being so weird. all the happy years together - which had been around seven years total - were now over. he was hinting that she should move out. He wasn't her Egon any more. no more fun stories and dances and songs and sex and, yes, Love. all gone. for good.
She met another guy. This guy fell in love with her very fast. he had a Lot of Problems...but he was also a very good and intelligent and loving person as well. he and she slept together and then they fell in love, as they say. she had been missing sex a whole lot and even missing affection much more than that. he had both for her. and a nice home he owned with a friend up in the mountains. a log cabin. he offered that she could move in with him. he was renting from a friend. she moved in with him...in just a short time, Egon told everyone that she had run out on him, tho he loved her deeply. actually, somehow, he Did Love Her again. it was like a conversion reaction. really neurotic and strange. he wanted her back. it was very upsetting. she couldn't trust him not to go back into his neurotic ways, so she couldn't come back. as it was, he would wind-up stalking her for a few years more - which was not unusual. he had stalked both his old girlfriend and his exwife for years. it was a habit with him... finally, he stopped and got himself another girlfriend. once again, his phobias faded for awhile, as he now, again, had a Love-of-his-life at home....
Around five years later, she heard from a friend that Egon had died of a heart attack while washing the dishes. his lady friend had been at home, but could not save him. His mother had died of a heart attack while washing the dishes, and he had been there and had not been able to save her. So. that was a strange thing as well. life can go like that at times...
Egon had been a great artist and a creative person and had been very smart about politics. in his olden days he had been a fine athelete too - in soccer and on skis...he had been a hiker and a great teacher and a good husband and dad and a good friend to many. he had been good to her for seven years too. so she had no regrets having known him. they had danced and sang and had many good times together for a long time. that is a good thing. no regrets. life went on and death went on. this is the way it is. this was the way it was with her and with Egon.
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