It was a brilliant club to be part of and we were a bunch of 60+ year olds enjoying ourselves, we have our own club or space in a library and the times are from 8-10 Sunday to Tuesday. Mind you, there are only ten of us in this club, but we are a brilliant lot and 5 of the members are retired. It is more of a club for the old and the retired, who have worked all of their lives and we do creative things, from reading scripts, novels to even put on a little show as we have our own stage. We also do painting and drawing and for people of our age this is just perfect and it is something we all enjoy doing. I guess this place is our little space to get away from the outside world, as you get to our age, you just feel like escaping from things and there are not many places for people of our age unless you are rich. You can say I was the leader of the group and I made sure the register was being signed and I had to plan what to do next for the next session. There were 6 men and 4 women and we all got along so well and it was amazing, to find such good people at our age. I do try and advertise our little club to other people our age, but life for some is extremely touchy and also you have to consider some people our age don’t have the best health.
I am Freddie and the other five men are called Billy, Rodney, Timothy, Rodger and Martin and they are all a bunch of good guys and only I am working now as the rest of the males were retired. The four women, Clarice, Janice, Florence and Janet were the females and they were still working. All of us got along very well and I guess when I first opened this club I was scared that the wrong types of people were going to join. I was blessed to have such good people and you never know the type of people living in your area that you might get along with so much. We all came from a generation where we were kicked out of our houses to find our own lives and not like today, where laziness and excuses are just everywhere. All ten of us have worked our whole lives and given all that we could to the government and now we could finally start to enjoy what is left of our lives. It was amazing reading novels and scripts and just having a discussion about it and going up on stage was something delightful for all of us. I even planned a day where we could all sing the popular songs from our times when we were young and it was amazing, I couldn’t believe what I had managed to make and I was definitely looking forward to retirement.
Retirement isn’t that simple and yes, I have worked all of my life and to just retire is quite a huge thing to plan. I mean, how would I spend my time now as I have been working for so long? Let’s say you were off work for so long for being sick, eventually you would have gotten bored or felt like the walls were coming in. That is what retirement feels like if you don’t plan for it and make a new way of living yourself. I guess the best days are the simple days where we choose a novel to read and one of us decided to read out loud for us all and we read some of it and then we talk about it and carry on in other sessions. It’s brilliant how we dissect things and talks about its meanings and what we love about it and hate about it. I would admit though the outside world is no place for people like us and unlike my father and mother, when the world had more respect for the elderly, the outside world feels extremely vicious and something that would make the mind go crazy. All you ever hear now is drugs, s*x and rock and roll with a bunch of murders, rapes and theft and I am sure if you can understand why a small, quiet place like this in the library is perfect for us all. We all actually had a discussion once discussing whether the human race is actually going to survive the next 1000 years and the answers were mainly a no.
Every day though when everybody leaves, I turn off the lights and observe the surroundings. I smile as I am so glad and happy I have found something especially for my retirement. I mean many people have told me that once you stop moving that’s when you start dying, that’s another thing you keep hearing about when you get my age, death is everywhere. In the next session Billy, Rodney and Timothy came into the session all complaining about something in their throat. It’s not harming them, but something rough the three of them complained that felt stuck in their throat and it felt weird that three people from my club had gotten whatever it is was in their throat. That session we just carried on reading the novel and Clarice was reading out loud for the whole group to hear and we discussed the characters even more in-depth. After the session Rodney, Billy and Timothy all were drinking so much water. I came up to check them out and they were still complaining about something stuck in their throat, I also started to smell a scent. It wasn’t a bad scent, but a perfume like scent and it seemed to be coming from their mouths. We all joked that none of them would need to brush their teeth anymore or take a mint. It was the weirdest thing really and I advised them that they should see a doctor about and they all agreed and we all hoped it wasn’t life threatening or anything dangerous.
A couple of sessions later and finishing the novel, we decided to open up another novel from another author and I was also told that the three guys Rodney, Billy and Timothy had all visited a doctor and were glad to know that nothing deadly was found in their mouth. I mean something was found in their tonsils but nothing life threatening which the doctor could find. After the novel was read and we talked about for a while, the three guys wanted to say something to the whole group as they wanted to show us all something. It was the perfect place to show and tell and also I had started a Facebook page for our group and I started taking pictures and basically advertising it more now to reach out to more people.
Rodney first got up,
“As you know me, Billy and Timothy all had something troubling in our tonsils and even a scent was coming out of it. We all joked that we will never have to brush our teeth or take a mint. Being responsible old men we all visited the doctor and the doctor found something stuck in our tonsil, he found a small purple gem like stone stuck in all of our throats separately of course and here it is,” Timothy showed all of us and the other two guys showed theirs as well.
Everyone got up to inspect the little gem like things that were stuck in their tonsils and the scent was quite pleasant. All the women made jokes like “diamonds are a girl’s best friend” Janice joked and it did look quite amazing to be honest. It was an unusual thing to be found inside a human, but the guys joked that they are gem making machines now and shall start selling them all over the world. I took some pictures and uploaded them on onto the Facebook page. Janet and Florence started making jokes about chopping the guy’s heads off and selling them and all of us all joked back that they may get a different reality than fame and riches. The session ended on a good note and as everyone was leaving the three guys started feeling things in their throat again, but the doctor told them that they needed to take it out by using a small skinny small stick to pluck out the stones, they didn’t care though at this age you have to do many things to keep a healthy body. You have to watch what you eat and exercise regularly and constantly checking up on your weight and it is a difficult age to be and if only you could rewind back the time and become young again.
I remembered as I got home that I got a phone call from Billy and he was laughing and he was telling how many stones were found in his tonsil and I laughed and joked back that maybe he could make a world record. I couldn’t stop remembering the scent it was quite unusual and something you would find in a foreign country and it was quite smooth and elegant. The next sessions I came to find out that Timothy, Billy and Rodney were missing from the group and I tried phoning their mobile but no one answered. We had to carry on and we started devising a small play from a play script and it was a good session all round. I could help but think something was wrong with the three missing guys and Rodger and Martin were like “so this is what it feels like to be outnumbered by the women” and we all laughed and it was a harmless joke. After the session I was confronted by two policemen and they told me that I needed to come with them quickly and that they were going to take me to Rodney’s house. My heart was racing and you know those moments when people you love are in trouble, it’s a different sort of fear. I told my wife that I would be home a little late as I was with the police and she told me to be careful, my wife prefers to be alone and she doesn’t like being in clubs and things. As I arrived at Rodney’s house there were so many police cars and ambulance people and I was beginning to worry even more. As I was taken upstairs, I was shown three dead bodies whose bottom jaws had been ripped off all belonging to Rodney, Billy and Timothy. There was a note asking them to call me and where I would be if they wanted to find me. I explained to the police officials of the club that I had made a club for 60+ year olds and the three of them were part of my club. Straight away Billy’s and Timothy’s body showed signs of being dragged through the street and I remember seeing blood on the street as I got out of the police car and I had no idea what had happened. The investigation team was also present and they obviously plucked those colored gems out from their tonsils and they could smell the perfume like scent.
A funeral was held for all three of them and all of their families arrived and everyone from the club also arrived. The investigation team could not really find anything as to what happened to the three guys from my club. They also tested the stones that were found in their tonsils and I was told they do not know what it is after many experiments and testing but he perfume scent was present. Then a police official came up to me to talk to me about the stones in the three men’s mouth and he said to me, that maybe their bodies didn’t produce the stones but something placed it there. It was a scary and horrible thought to think about and even the doctor wasn’t too sure as to what was going on and what those stones were. Our club would forever miss them and we were down three members now and to be honest with the death of the three men, it did put some light onto our club, as the news and other media were talking about the weird death of three pensioners in the same night. It wasn’t the way I wanted to people to hear about the club I made in the library, but people were checking out the Facebook page and messaging me.
In our next session being three down, we all decided to read a novel and I decided to be the reader and there was a weird atmosphere in the air and sadness that could be felt. The chairs for Rodney, Billy and Timothy were still out but empty and I pictured the three of them there just listening along to me reading and I smiled. After the reading we all discussed the characters and the story plot and I noticed the three females of our group Clarice, Janice and Janet were coughing like the three guys were coughing. I didn’t want to say anything right then as I didn’t want to make it a big deal, but after the session I caught up with the three ladies and I had a chat with them. I asked them about their coughing and they all looked at me with a worried look and I could smell that scent now and I remember that scent. I looked back and they knew that I knew and they have got the same symptom as the three guys and they were worried if anything will happen to them. Clarice also told me that she had been feeling as if something mainly the scent was attracting something, she never felt alone when she was alone. Even when all of the ladies families and husbands were with them they felt as if something was making them feel alone. They didn’t want to go to the doctor nor make a big fuss about it and all three women were joking how they were going to be rich now by selling what their tonsils were making. I laughed and when they left I looked worried and I really wanted them to be safe, but maybe they were safe, what happened to the three guys might have been some absurd coincidence. I did start getting phone calls from the women at awkward times as they were feeling weird or something felt off this time round. I told them if they wanted to go to the police and they all declined and the three women thought that maybe they were scared because of the death of the three guys from our club who also had the same symptom in their tonsils. I didn’t want to force anything onto them or make them more worried and I felt as if our club was in jeopardy and that it wasn’t going to last long. I visited the library on a day when my group wasn’t in and there was another group and I was just looking at them and thinking about our club and all of the things we have done together, I smiled to myself remembering the good times. I was also thinking about the three guys and extremely worried about the three women from my club.
I watched many clubs and organisation using the space from the library all from different walks of life and all from different ages and I watched them through the open door all taking part in reading and acting as well as singing. That is what’s amazing about this place how it brings people together and no matter what they experience from the outside world, they are together laughing and enjoying themselves. It’s like being children again and just connecting together as humans, and in the age of social media I guess we need a little connection without the use of phones or other gadgets. I saw so many different kinds of age groups and so many different types of generations and I was surprised how many different groups there were and all were equal and none were better than the other.
Then I got a call from Clarice and she was home alone and her husband was away for a week and she was complaining about something being present in her house. She had also phoned the two other women who were also coming to her house and I drove fast while still talking on the phone and I could hear Janice and Janet in the background saying that they are calling the police now as they made it to Clarice’s house and as I arrived there and hoping they had called the police and the police arrived on time. The door was open and there was a horrendous silence in Clarice’s house now and the police weren’t here and I stepped in and I could hear movements but they didn’t feel like human movements but rather something else. I saw in the front room the two dead bodies of Janet’s and Janice and their bottom jaws had been ripped off and I started to cry and fell back onto the wall. Then upstairs, I could hear breathing and as I crept upstairs, I saw a beast like thing in awkward human form with weird and awkward bones, it had a large beast like mouth, with sharp teeth and its eyes were gold, it ripped the bottom jaw of Clarice’s mouth and it sucked some of the stones from her tonsil and then is such speed it had disappeared in front of my eyes. The police arrived and I was crying like a child and wailing for help as I didn’t know what to do and the police calmed me down and I told them what happened.
A funeral was held for the three women and all of their families and friends as well as the club, but this time only me, Rodger and Martin were the members left. I decided to close down the club at the library and on our last day we decided to read a short story and we talked about it and we put up chairs for the rest of the gang who were dead and we talked about the short story and our deceased members. As the session ended for this time for forever, I noticed something felt rough in my throat.