By Gill Hurtig
Another day. My mother’s 60th birthday. Wake up, pour coffee, drink coffee, work, eat lunch, watch the news, work, take walk. Give her birthday present, a giftcard to Dry Farms Wines, $50, order pasta from a fancy restaurant, linguini, watch a movie that she picks, In the Heat of the Night. Eat cake, chocolate, gluten-free, because it’s my mom’s birthday.
My dad shuffles back to his office, always working. My mother pours herself another glass of wine, reaching for the remote to return to the news. I grab the clear, plastic cake container to place back on top of the one-third of cake that remains. It was a small cake. My dad gasps from his office. “What is it dad?” I ask, elsewhere.
“My colleague,” he says. “Just died.”
I walk into his office. “Dan Feinman…” my dad trails off, scanning the email that had just been sent from the office of IIT. My mom realizes that something is happening. She walks into the office; “A professor just died, Tony? What happened? Did you know him?”
“My colleague, Dan just died. I knew him a little bit.” It was clear that my dad had gained a better grasp of the situation even while just making this statement. As though the shot had been administered, but hadn’t been felt until just now. Pulling up a picture attached to the email, my dad exclaimed, “There he is!! Dan!!” There was pain in his voice, but I felt the alarm.
I didn’t recognize the face on the screen. He looked about 65, thin-wire glasses, a full head of hair and a broad smile. He looked like he could have had plans to head out on a fishing trip later in the afternoon. “Oh, Tony....” My mom went and hugged him in his chair. Sort of awkwardly, I thought. I put my hand on his shoulder. His sweater was coarsely woven and unfamiliar.
We all looked at the face one more time. Walking out of my dad’s office I felt something in my hand. It was the plastic lid of the cake container. “How odd,” I thought. I moved back into the kitchen and placed the lid on the cake.
It is only when the needle skips that you realize there was music playing at all.
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