Greased Samba
By John Deck, first published in The Atlantic
An elderly man fills out an exit questionnaire as he leaves his retirement community, intending to admonish the community's doctor. He ends up revealing the details of his final months with his wife and describes how they used to dance together, cherishing their love.
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Plot Summary
Hank wants Doc Bob, the head doctor at Winifred Farms, the retirement community he has just left, to know what he thinks of him as he fills out an exit questionnaire. First, he sums up his current status: he's living with his daughter and her husband, and his pregnant granddaughter comes by often. His body, brain, and finances are healthy. Only the fact that Sug (short for Sugar), his wife of over forty-seven years, has just died bothers him. Hank and Sug could have gone anywhere, but they picked Winifred Farms, and they liked it. He complains about the scenery and lighting, but he and Sug loved the community's games. His tone grows scathing when he brings up his friend, Dick Watson. When Doc Bob forced Watson, the shuffleboard champion, to clean up the pucks as punishment for an outburst, he stopped playing altogether and died within a month. Where Hank lays blame for the death -- and the disrespectful memorial service — is clear. One day, he tells Doc Bob that he and Sug tried square dancing. They crashed into each other painfully — but they just laughed. Two nights later, they spend hours in their cottage doing the same dance. After a week, they're both badly bruised, and Sug's hip is injured. Hank's rage at Doc Bob crests as he finally reveals the truth. On the night of the Annual Winifred Farms Luau a month later, he and Sug left the crowd to dance on the beach, her hip be damned. Later, in their cottage, they decided to try something new — the samba, with grease on their clothes to soften the blows. The pain blossomed as the hours passed, and before long, Hank fell asleep dancing. When he woke up, Sug was dead next to him. A stroke — she had just kept dancing. After one final screw-you to Doc Bob, Hank swears that he'll never return to Winifred Farms. Never.
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