Rossberger (New Stories) (Short Story‪)‬

FRANK ROSSBERGER retired today. Sooner than he expected, Rossberger diligently accounted for each day to this goal. His house was a three-story in Southington, Connecticut, purchased years ago at a fixed rate. After thirty-five years at a major insurance company in Hartford, he was offered a good-bye retirement party, as he had anticipated, treated by his department to a last "sit-down" at the restaurant The Naked Fish. Many of the words he recalled speaking were planned days ahead of time, as if he might need to call on his coworkers after his retirement. He had associated each well-wishes card, gag gift and memento to a person, in the same manner, as he so often did, in accounting for the work and documentation they had given to him during his career. He had purchased a sturdy crate at Staples and put in the last rites of passage, a next step he recalled thinking, in the front seat of his Ford Spleasure, 4 x 4, as he made his last commute to his home.