Man Up - Page 106/268

Again the words began appearing fuzzy to him as he wrestled with grasping at their meaning. With so much going on he knew he had been neglecting his own health. Just as he had finished the election, Markus announced his engagement and soon married afterwards. Jacob had been barely able to afford paying for half of that wedding and now Dinah was announcing her plans for marriage. How will he ever be able to come up with the money to pay for that? He figured he could take out another mortgage on the house. He didn't want to do it again, considering he had just finished paying off the second mortgage from when Louise had gotten sick and he had done everything possible to provide her with the best of care. Now he needed to focus on his own health and figure out how to pay off his debt.

The blurriness and fuzziness was clouding up his mind making comprehension virtually impossible. He definitely had to pay a visit to the eye doctor at the very least. There were times when he couldn't even remember his address and sometimes he forgot his name. He couldn't understand why recently his mind seemed to be jumbled up as if it were a monster-size jigsaw puzzle. Maybe it was due to the stress of dealing with losing his wife, six-figure income and being buried under a mountain of debt that tripled his previous income. His eyes grew misty with tears thinking of his past.

"That's it Markus… Nice catch man." He heard his younger voice encouraging his stepson on the TV as he played the video of one of the many tapings of their father and son baseball training sessions. He smiled to himself. Markus had grown up fine emulating him. He had gone on to follow into his profession being an attorney and with a few pulled strings in the right direction he was now an associate in Jacob's previous law firm. Jacob reached to his right wrapping his large dark hands around the still warm cup of coffee. He took a small sip as he watched himself and his stepson practicing baseball together.

"Run Mark-run!" He shouted over the screen as Markus rounded the baseball diamond at lightning speed. Jacob watched himself watching his son with pride as the former pint-size kid slid into home plate after grand-slamming the ball out of the ballpark of their local park.

"That's my boy… That's my boy." Jacob encouraged as he applauded his efforts and then jogged over to greet young Markus with a few head rubs and pats on the back.