He looked like the Del he remember from this side angle view he had. Same mop of red hair, constantly pushing up his horn rimmed glasses. He had met Del when they both worked for the railroad in Wyoming. He had worked there for almost ten years when Del showed up as a new hire. They became friends almost at once. Both were single and in their mid-thirty’s and making good money compared to the rest of the working community in the same small town.

He figured he would work for the railroad for the rest of his life and earn his golden spike. Del had other plans for himself besides staying here in the “backwoods” as he called it. Del had been accepted to the Masters program in Fine Arts at the University of Arizona in Tucson. And he was putting the hard sell on Dan to join him in this “adventure”.

Finally Dan accepted and they both moved to an unfurnished apartment in Tucson. Del was working as a carpenter when he wasn’t going to school. Dan worked with him for a few months before he accepted a job with IBM. IBM then transferred him to the West Coast and that was the last time he saw Del.

In his career with IBM Dan was transferred all over the world and had recently retired from his executive position with the firm. In all that time Dan hardly ever thought about Del. He knew that Del had dropped out the Masters program at UofA and was back working in construction.

Until today. He was out looking for retirement homes in the Southwest and was looking at this latest development that had received great reviews from all the “where to retire magazines”.

He called out, “Hey Del, is that you.”

The figure turned around and shouted, “Dan, my god, is that you Dan? The IBM executive that once worked with me when we first moved to Arizona. The world traveler and famous tech exec.”

“Yup, Del, that’s me. Looks like your still working construction. I’m out here looking to purchase a new retirement home.  Any recommendations?”

Just then a young girl ran up to Del and said: “Mr. Webb, you have a conference call with your development managers scheduled in 10 minutes. The development managers from Florida and California can’t make it but all the others will be on-line.”

“Hey Dan, while I take this call, why don’t you go with this young lady and she can set you up with a few nights in one of our Villas here and you can look around. No rush. My treat! If you can’t find something here I can fly you and the wife to one of my other developments.”

Inspiration for this posts goes to “The Jittery Goat”.