The Band-Aid and the Piece of Gum

There was the possibility up until five o’clock—then there was no more possibility. I expected to hear from Walter today. When I woke up, I was cheered by the thought that maybe today, today would be the most important day of my life. Today I ended up using the Band-Aid Walter had given me on my toe. He had thrust it into my hand. “Take it. You never know when you may need it.” The piece of gum he had once given me I chewed finally today also. “Try it. You could learn something,” is what he had said. Remember how I told you he grabbed me around the neck the last time I saw him? It was practically impossi­ble to walk, which he was trying to do all at the same time, and trying to get me to walk along with him, too. There was the possibility, perhaps, that we could both have toppled over onto his floor.

That’s it. Usually they start where a person was born, then their parents, their parents’ parents, where they were born, occupations, so that includes dates, names, locations, character traits of all the parties con­cerned, chronology, trauma, wishes, dreams, eccen­tricities, real speech, achievements, including struggle, the obstacles, someone’s dementia, another chronic illness, a centrifugal drama, certainly all the deaths, pho­tos, paintings if any—likenesses of many of the parties concerned, plus summary statements made peri­odically throughout to sum up the situation at any given time.