Hanging on the telephone

Posted on by February 25, 2020

Darren creaked down the stairs. The murmur of his wife’s voice on the phone to his mother soothed his steps. She said, “Yes, we’ll be there in under twelve hours Sherry.” He saw her at the bottom, pacing just outside the kitchen.

He thought, “Tie, suit, wingtips, dress shirt, black socks.”

She said, “I’m touched. Of course he’ll deliver the eulogy.”

“What? I’ll do what?”

When he spoke, she looked up and put her finger to her lips. She walked back into the kitchen, away from him.

“How can I give a eulogy for someone who should still be alive?”

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This week, Velvet Verbosity challenged us with ‘murmur’

About jesterqueen:
Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Comments

Hanging on the telephone — 15 Comments

    • And you can’t expect it, even though we should. So it’s always a slap. Even if it’s prepared for and expected, there’s still a sense of disbelief when it’s over.

  2. OK, you need to develop that! I’m as confused as the poor husband and dreadfully worrying what just happened. Maybe it’s just the brain fog after all. 🙂

    • I’m envisioning the death of a sibling here, where his mother is bearing far more than he can comprehend at this point.

  3. Ouch. That kind of loss is so difficult to process. I like the detail about the packing — it reminded me of the kind of scattered thinking I did when my grandfather died.

    • It’s strange how we ground ourselves in the routine so that the extraordinary won’t overtake and subsume us.

  4. I like the way this one hit me – just like news of a death. Confusion and non-acceptance and grief.

    • Thanks – that was exactly what I wanted. Just a peek into the life of a man as the truth of a death strikes home.

    • Of course, surprise kittens are infinitely better than surprise deaths.

  7. That hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember my sister-in-law asking if I was going to speak at my mother’s funeral service. I had different reasons for thinking it was an awful question. I’m kind of mad at the wife here for not asking him before saying for sure he would do it. I hate the unfairness of that kind of presumption. I guess he can’t really say no, but give him the respect of asking.

    • I thought it was a shitty thing for the wife to do, too. I kept trying to have her do other things, but it veered back to that three times so I stuck with it.