Charlie paid more attention to what was said about him than the residents of Shoreville suspected. Although many accepted Charlie’s strange-for-Shoreville lifestyle and chalked it off to idiosyncrasy and hurt feelings, some were intrigued by any form of behavior that deviated from the Shoreville norm and took to watching Charlie and commenting about him.
This latter group concerned him. They were busybodies who would eventually try to invade his privacy if only to certify that he was “normal” by Shoreville’s standards. Charlie didn’t want people prying into his life.
He showed up at company-sponsored functions so he could hear from friends and associates what was being said about him.
III
Every year the Shaw Corporation sponsored an Easter Party at a local national park in Shoreville. The park was a former World War II military installation along the shores of the Delaware River. It had been converted to a national park after the war. There were picnic tables in abundance and lots of room for the kids to run. The party was for the community of Shoreville, not just Shaw employees. There were Easter egg hunts and games for the kids. Everyone in Shoreville who worked for Shaw and a great many of those who didn’t, always showed up for the event. That and the Christmas party were the two big social events that the company sponsored that everyone truly enjoyed.
Even though he had no children and both parties were always scheduled for a Saturday, Charlie never missed the events. He liked to watch the kids play and he could talk to the adults in a relaxed atmosphere.
One of the first persons he saw at the Easter Party was Ben Hopkins, a marketing manager at Shaw. Hopkins came striding straight toward Charlie, “Chaarlie! How ya been, buddy?”
“Fine Ben, how ‘bout yourself?”
“Doin’ all right Charlie, all right. Haven’t seen you around in a while Charlie.”
“C’mon Ben, you saw me in the cafeteria in Wilmington just yesterday.”
“Oh yeah, the marketing meeting. No, but what I mean Charlie is I haven’t seen you around town. You know.”
“You’re looking at me right now, Ben and we are, as you say, ‘around town’, aren’t we?”
“Of course, Charlie but you know what I mean. C’mon we went to school together ever since third grade. I mean, well, you know, I haven’t seen you at the Royal Bar, Jimmy Balsamo’s joint, dating any of the available broads, you know, that kind of ‘around town’. Jeez Charlie you were always a popular guy with the ladies in school and bein’ single and all, I just figured….”
“I know what you figured, Ben” Charlie replied amiably, “I’m still a popular guy with the ladies, don’t worry. But you know as well as I do that every woman in this town knows every other woman and all of them knew Mary Jo. Why in the hell would I want to go out with somebody who is going to sit there all night telling me what a bitch Mary Jo was for leaving me? Shoreville is already small enough. It’s even smaller for a bachelor. What if I went to bed with one of the local women, Ben? We both know that the next day the whole damned town would know it. They’d be hearing wedding bells. ‘Charlie’s finally found somebody!’ You know it’s true.”
“I guess you’re right Charlie. I hadn’t thought about that side of it. I’m not trying to pry, you understand. It’s just that, well, folks around like you Charlie. They like being with you.”
“Right!” thought Charlie, “that’s why you must have called me at least twice in the past ten years!”
“No problem, Ben. It was good to run into you. Who knows, maybe I will show up at your house one of these weekends to join you and Sally for dinner?’
“Oh, ah, uh, yeah, good idea Charlie. Oh, I gotta go, Sally is calling for me. But, ah, Charlie, make sure you call. You know how fussy Sally is. If you showed up and she didn’t have the very best on the table she’d be embarrassed.”
Charlie noticed that Sally had her back turned to him and Ben. She would have found it difficult to call to him from that position. He smiled inwardly at Ben’s discomfort. He imagined himself showing up at the Hopkins’ door, “Hi, Ben. I thought I would take up your offer and show up for some overdue socializing.” He let a small smile begin as he watched Ben fidgeting.
“Well, Charlie. Gotta be goin’. Sally’s calling me. Wouldn’t want her thinking we’re hatching up some bachelor party now, would I?”
“God forbid, Ben. You better get going. Nice to see you again and say ‘hi’ to Sally for me.”
“See ya, Charlie. Show up one of these days, OK?”
Ben took off in the direction of his wife who still had her back turned and was talking to one of her friends.
A few minutes later Charlie saw Ben talking animatedly to a group of people. He was telling them what he had just learned from Charlie. He was gesticulating and most certainly telling the group how he almost had to invite Charlie to dinner, how it appears that Charlie has girlfriends in other places, how Charlie wants to avoid getting hooked to just one local girl so he leaves them all alone, and so on. He knew he was the subject of the conversation because every once in a while someone in the group would glance at him as Ben was talking.
Charlie watched Ben and made a mental note of every person that he had been talking to in case he should come across them or Ben again soon.
After the Easter Party a small group of “Charlie Watchers” began to develop among some of the people Ben Hopkins had talked to. They started looking for Charlie whenever they went anywhere. Charlie noticed their attention during the week when he would show up at the bowling alley or at softball games. They would stare at him when he walked into the Royal Bar or into Jimmy Balsamo’s restaurant. They would then start talking animatedly and every once in a while one or the other would glance over at Charlie. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that he was the topic of the conversation at the table.
At first, Charlie found the local surveillance amusing. He was going to the same places he had always gone during the week. The only thing that was unusual was the increased interest of others. However, he was concerned for that kind of curiosity with regard to his weekend behavior. That was his private time away from Shoreville and he did not want that time invaded and subject to the scrutiny of Shoreville’s busybodies.
Some of the housewives in the “Charlie Watchers” group even looked for Charlie during weekday shopping trips to Wilmington at 11-o-clock in the morning when it was obvious that at that time of day he was in his office at the Shaw Corporation.
The group picked up on every “Charlie Sighting” report. Bill Gallagher thought he saw Charlie coming out of Bookbinder’s Restaurant in Philly. Diane Simms said that a friend of hers told her in absolute confidence that she had seen Charlie Mullins on a Saturday night coming out of the chic Positano restaurant with a really attractive girl on his arm. “So help me God,” Diane said, “she told me the girl did not look a day over 18!”
It wouldn’t be long before people started swapping “Charlie Stories” and women would be trading information and speculations at the local beauty parlor.
Some of the rumors started making their way back to Charlie and he made it a practice to remember the name of
