1、It was 10 p.m. fritz said good night to his wife. The next day was a big day. It was his last day of   36  . Thirty years with the government. Thirty years of flying out of town for weeks on end. Thirty years of interviews, meetings, and heavy briefcases. The next day it would all be   37  . Not that he didn’t like it, but that he had   38   his career.

Fritz felt   39  . His father had had a tough life as an unskilled member of labor force. Whenever Fritz was a bit   40   or upset, he thought about his overworked but   41   father. He thanked God for his own good life,   42   for the fact that he had been able to make his dad’s last years comfortable.

His two children were married and had their own   43  . His wife Paige kept busy with her tennis club. She had tried to get him interested in tennis, but without   44  . Fritz was   45   with his own Friday night chess group.

Friday morning, he went to work for the   46   last time. Those who knew him well would   47   him. Fritz was a really nice man. He never had a bad   48   to say about anyone. Some people   49   have thought he was a little dull, but he was intelligent, a hard worker, and a   50   player. He had taken only three weeks of sick leave in 30 years.

A small group invited him to eat out at noon. When he returned from   51  , the whole office gathered around for cake, ice cream, a farewell card, and a few short   52  . They   53   him with various going away gifts, including a big, paperback US travel book he had told his friends that he and Paige were going to spend a couple of years visiting all the places that he never had gotten to   54   while there on business. As a final gift, the chief in his office told him to take the rest of the day off.

Paige’s car wasn’t in the driveway when he got home. She was probably shopping for some traveling clothes. Maybe she was out   55   a dinner at a restaurant that evening for just the two of them. That would be nice.