Some stories refuse to be forgotten, and remain lodged in my mind for whatever reason. They aren’t always stories by famous writers or well-known tales or have anything important to say. The story is just there in my mind. ‘Mr. Whittaker’s Retirement’ is just such a tale.
Mr. Whittaker, a senior partner in a drug company is forced to take early retirement due to ill health. For the first few weeks he finds retirement agreeable, but after that time hangs heavy on his hands. Then a bad investment on the stock market makes his financial situation difficult. In short, he finds he needs to go back to work. He’s fortunate to find a very junior position, but finds he’s now on the bottom rung and having to put up with being snubbed by clerks who previously were junior to him.
“For the first two or three weeks I enjoyed my freedom, but when they had passed I had had enough of it. I had nothing to do! Every day at the hours when business was at its height, I thought of the hurry, of the inquiries, of the people waiting in the anteroom, of the ringing of bells, of the rapid instructions to clerks, of the consultations after the letters were opened, of our anxious deliberations, of the journeys to Scotland at an hour’s notice, and of the interviews with customers. I pictured to myself that all this still went on, but went on without me, while I had no better occupation than to unpack a parcel, pick the knots out of the string, and put it in a string-box.”
Published in More Pages from a Journal: With Other Papers, Henry Frowde, 1910. Available to read online via the Gutenberg Project
A Personal Anthology 