The Last Piece

The Last Piece ©

By

Michael Casey

Well I’ve decided that this will be the last piece in Seventeen Again, which is my 17^th book. I cannot shake this flu, so I thought I’d finish off this book at the 80,000 word mark instead of the 100,000.

17 Again as you know is the first track on the Peace album by the Eurythmics. I bought it in 1999 or so, which means 20 years have passed, during which time I’ve met and married a Shanghai girl, and had two bilingual daughters. It also means only Oriental girls attract me, as I’ve grown used to looking at the wife. So if you want to seduce me you’ll need to be Oriental to stand a chance, or to be very very funny. I’m laughing now not at my own conceit, but really you’ve seen my scars and my photos, who would want me? Nobody.

So it is amazing when we, any of us find love, as opposed to Christmas Party sex, and there is a big big difference, and I could tell you loads of stories, but I won’t to save everybody’s blushes. 17 Again, the album as held hostage in Shanghai to make sure I’d not forget the love of my life. It was returned and is in a drawer upstairs, though most of my CDs I gave to our gay neighbours at the old house. I did download my 1990s collection to the computer and am listening to 17 Again as I talk to you. Though this year I started listening to online music, so my musical exposure has increased five fold, most of my CDs I had bought in the Nineties, before marriage and poverty.

I do need to listen to more music for another reason too, Tinnitus has arrived from nowhere like a bastard, at night especially it really is a form or torture as normal background noise is not there, so the hiss in your ears is even louder. A bit of nice music, Taylor Swift lessens the torture, as the radio can have too many adverts, or too many Christmas songs.

I’m now in my spot in the new house, it’s far quieter, and it’s like climbing Mount Everest just popping to the shops, and in cold weather you can imagine I’m like a heavy breather on one of those stalker callers. Then I caught the flu, so it’s not an easy beginning. However the study, ok a pretentious term, is the nicest room, and if anybody is tired of studying we have a large sofa behind us, ready for resting.

So just in case I get bored of writing, or I do get seduced on the large sofa behind me, I’ve decided to package up the latest lot of words. This is Seventeen Again, it’s the last selection of words from the old house and a few pieces from the new house. Thereafter everything, bar seduction on the sofa behind me, will be from me here sat at my desk in the new house.

 I don’t know how long I’ll last, my heart and arthritis and Ckd and tinnitus, though I do have a lovely smile and nice teeth, and silvery soft hair, full of dandruff. I’ve now had 4 years extra time, 50% of quadruple bypass last 10 years, but the scream level has been high, and waking every 2 hours in the night, so not getting any REM will in the end get me. That’s why I smile when I speak or being seduced by an Oriental, if it killed her then it’ll be the chance she’ll have to take. Yes, a very old joke, before Snowflakes and PC was invented, and yes they’ve never heard of irony and pathos either.

I hope you all enjoy the Lucky Bag of writing that you get most days, because it does give me a Lift, I can prove to myself that I still have some value, I can make you all laugh in nearly 40 countries all over the world. Yes I do think my words could be packaged to help teach English as a 2^nd language and maybe I could make a few quid to help pay off the mortgage or leave to my daughters.

In the meantime I’ll just load this up to my 17 Again file as the last piece, and then load it to Amazon so you can buy it, well in my dreams. Then I may just have a rest on the sofa behind me, and in my dreams I may have the Last Seduction of the fat silver haired writer in shades from Birmingham England. Or then again I may just go down the road to the Korean takeaway, rice with everything…