The end is the beginning: He's already cleared out his office, attended the farewell party, listened to the speeches, said his goodbyes.
His three kids have grown and moved on. His gray hairs keep multiplying.
And now, five decades of work are behind him. He's delivered newspapers, sold furs in a farmers market, manned a grocery store register, helped customers in a clothing store, taught middle school English, endured medical school, attended to the sick and dying.
Only a day ago, he was in charge of 200 employees at the Pasco County Health Department. Then he woke up as a 66-year-old man with no job, no obligations, no meetings, no more need for neckties.
What does a man do on the first day of the rest of his life?
After the sky fell: The few drivers on this dark, lonely stretch of the Suncoast Parkway in Pasco County pull up to the toll booth, hand their dollars to Lloyd Blair and then speed away. None of them knows why the old man sits here, night after night, working the graveyard shift.
Well, here's why:
Because years ago, on a freezing winter night at a party in Queens, N.Y., he met a woman named Millie.
The secret lies in summer nights: She can't know the secret just yet. Not at this age. Not now.
So don't tell her. Don't ruin it.
Just let her lie atop the car and wear her 3-D glasses and drink in the movie.
And much more . . .-eddie
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