All That Glitters (ePub)

Ellie Perro harbored an unattained goal to travel to places she had dreamed to see since childhood. Now in the twilight of her life she has encouraged her husband, Rick, to retire from his accounting business in Pennsylvania and move to their condominium in Tropico, Florida. Rick is a workaholic and declines retirement until he experiences heart irregularity, and because of his doctor's advice, agrees to move to Florida. Ellie has suspected infidelity on the part of her handsome husband ever since he had an affair with Julie Cordell during Ellie's second pregnancy. Overall the marriage of forty years has been essentially stable but has lost most of the luster once enjoyed by the couple. Ellie being ten years younger than Rick has found this frustrating and seeks the challenge of becoming a tour guide after they become settled in Florida. The move during early February is marked at the onset by a near tragedy when they have an accident with a deer on the morning of departure in a snowstorm. Then they have a second misadventure during a monstrous storm in Charlotte, North Carolina. Arriving in Tropico, Florida, they find devastation from the same storm system and cannot occupy the condominium due to wind and water damage. They are forced to stay in the hospitality suite at El Tropico Condominiums for two weeks while damages are repaired. The first day in Tropico they enjoy lunch at Barney's Place, their favorite eatery. Barney O'Toole, the restaurateur, has assembled a valuable collection of baseball memorabilia. A young man who seems unusually interested in the baseball items on the wall arouses Ellie's curiosity. Following lunch, the Perros rest in their rooms in the office building when Corey Parker, the manager, has a strange, nearly fatal, accident. The next day the Perros learn that Barney's Place has been burglarized at great loss to Barney. A few days later, Ellie and Rick, with time on their hands, attend a flea market at Webster, Florida and the seemingly lackluster day becomes exciting when Ellie spots the young man she had seen in Barney's. The interest intensifies when she and Rick see some of Barney's stolen items on a flea market table. Other episodes include: an inflammatory dinner in the condo of Ellie's friend Kit Carmichael, an early foggy morning at the pool when Perry Williams dives into the pool just as Ellie notices a large alligator dive in at the far end of the pool, a motorcycle club tours El Tropico at dawn, Ellie has a disastrous meeting with Charlie Lambert to pursue her goal to become a tour guide. Rick is forced to return to Pennsylvania when the replacement in his business has a serious automobile accident, Rick returns briefly to El Tropico for the Saint Patrick's Day Party involving a tragic death, and Ellie becomes engaged as a tour guide in Florida and later to Alaska. Woven through this story are casualties of clandestine affairs, several humorous situations, a tragic fishing boat incident, and through it all the wavering love between Ellie and Rick. In the final analysis, Ellie is imbued with the realization that retiring is not necessarily the fulfillment of her dreams of the Golden Years.