nanowritmo 18 / I could write a book

When Harry met Sally / Soundtrack











“You’re not going to believe this S.” G. opened our telephone conversation. She was very agitated. “Your mother just hung up on me!”



“I believe that… welcome to the club.” I answered, then wondered if that was over the line. It hadn’t mattered, G. was too beside herself to even hear it. She went on in a rant that didn’t let me get a word in edgewise.


“You know, I’ve been going up to go to the doctor visits with your mom. She likes having another person there, and taking notes and stuff for her.”


I knew this. It was how we were getting significant information. I also knew that Mother had caught on to G. and I because of this and had started having JP go with her to some of her visits. Thus cutting G and I out of the loop. I wasn’t sure if G. knew this and wondered if this was the punch line.


Of course, I had also heard another surprise that evening when I talked to Mother. She had told me that next week, she was going to be released from the hospital. That she and G. had already talked that afternoon and pretty much had a plan all in place, but there was one more doctor’s appointment to finalize things. She had been evasive about the specifics though. Still she had been in very good spirits when I had spoken with her.


“Well, your mom calls me and says she has an appointment with the doctor next week, and wanted me to come up a little early before we went. I reminded her that I wasn’t going to be around next week. Did I tell you that? It’s M.’s daughter’s birthday. I’m going to New Jersey for the week. Anyway, I reminded your mother that I’m going to be at my granddaughter’s second birthday party at the time of her appointment. She got pissed. I mean pissed. Do you believe this?”


Oh yes. I believed. But there was no time to comment as G. went on.


“So, she says to me. I didn’t know about this. And I remind her how we had all these conversations about it. We’ve been planning this for four months. She went with me to the travel agent to get the plane tickets. In fact, the original plan was she was going to take me to the airport. I’m really nervous about flying, especially after 9/11, but you know, I can’t drive it by myself that’s worse. And it’s A’s second birthday, it’s not like she’s going to have another one and I haven’t seen her since she was born. I couldn’t go last year because I was in that cast and had to keep going to physical therapy from the car accident. Anyway. So I tell your mother all this and you know what she says? She gets all quiet and says, ‘Well, I thought you were going to take me to the doctor and then tell him you’d take me home and would be with me at home.”


“Yeah. I heard something about that…” I said, but G. didn’t hear.


“I said, What? S. I can’t take you home. You can’t be home. You can’t walk. What are you thinking? So, she tells me how she has it all figured out, how I’m going to go and live in the condo and how JP can move the bed downstairs in the living room and we can set up a cot for me upstairs and I can live there and take care of her. I said, I can’t do that! I’m not a nurse and like what? I’m supposed to stay in the condo 24-7? We’d need a lot more planning. Like how do we go grocery shopping for Pete’s sake. And I do have a job! So, I say to her, when I get back from the birthday party we can discuss this. And then you know what she says to me?”


“Noooo…” Though I had several ideas.


“She says to me, ‘ I’m here dying! That’s more important! I thought she was joking! I said to her, S, you’re not going to die next week. That’s not an option. And I thought she’d laugh. But no. She says to me, ‘I’m dying, she’ll have other birthdays. You need to cancel your trip.’ I still thought she was joking.” G went on and I could mentally see her shaking her head. I didn’t. “But she wasn’t, I said, ‘it’s A’s second birthday! And your mother interrupted me to say, ‘if your still going, fine then’ and she hung up! I can’t believe it.” G. finally paused.


What could I say? I believed it. It was in kind to many conversations I’d had. I was actually surprised that this was her first. But clearly she was upset.


“I’m sorry.” I said and meant it. What else was there to say.