It Didn't Seem That He Had Anyone

So, now what?  The man freshly retired from his 30 years as a factory inspector asked his mewing cat.  He had the whole day ahead of him.  He looked to noon as the day's pivot point.  What should he do with himself in these morning hours?  He watched his cat arch around his legs, its hair becoming tousled from his corduroy trousers.  He turned off the kitchen light, the sun now streamed into the kitchen, hit the rainbow maker he just put up with string and he watched colors on his terra cotta floor.  Maybe he should call Graham.  No, it was too early.  He saw the stray cats on his back porch hissing at each other and he thought he might like another cup of tea.  The sound of water coming to a boil was comforting.  He turned on the radio and listened to his favorite public radio classical music station, sat down and put his elbows on the table, chin in his hands, and felt the muscles of his back slump.  The clock chimed half past eight.  He thought maybe he'd call his daughters, or maybe his brother.  He wanted to thank him again for helping him out after his second story had caught fire the previous winter.  He didn't know his sister-in-law would be so accommodating.  He slept in that small pink room where a framed prayer of Saint Francis hung by the light switch.   Funny how one phrase still stuck in his head: '...grant that I may not so much seek to be understood as to understand...'  He felt so dusty and pathetic that first night eating dinner with them, a blond child at each end of the table, staring at him, whose names he didn't remember.  Then the kids went to bed and so did he, a pathetic adult-child.  He hated being there.
But, he thought with a chuckle, that fire was actually an answer to a prayer.  For he no longer collapsed in his bathroom, holding onto the metal towel rack, face contorting, eyes lifted upwards through tears, pleading: 'why?...why..?  Please help me...'  Nor did he whisper those incantations anymore to the full moon when she icily spot-lit his cheek as he lie in bed.   Yes, he was feeling less lonely now.  The kettle began to whistle.