The Long List Anthology Volume 8 by The Long List Anthology 09 (retail) (epub)

Author:The Long List Anthology 09 (retail) (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Diabolical Plots, L.L.C.
Published: 2022-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

3. Phone Calls

After God brought my mom back from the dead, they were closer than ever. For a while, they talked all the time, but eventually they settled on a long phone call every Saturday afternoon, which drove cousin Miriam up the wall.

Mom wouldn’t say what exactly what they talked about. “He’s very busy,” she’d say vaguely, “under a lot of stress.”

“You could call Him sometime,” she would add, when I pushed her. “He always asks about you.”

I did think about calling Him. But then I thought about that failed prophecy, the whole Conversation we’d have to have, and ugh.

For the most part, though, Mom had other things on her mind. “You know,” she’d say, as if I hadn’t heard it a hundred times before, “one of my great regrets was dying without getting to meet my grandchildren.”

“Mom,” I’d say, “you’re still alive.”

“Only because of a miracle, dear,” she’d say, “and we mustn’t count on miracles. What happened to Brett, anyway? I liked Brett. Good Jewish boy. And a doctor!”

“Brett threw plates when he got mad, Mom. And he wasn’t a doctor; he was a nurse practitioner. There’s a difference.” And he never let me forget it.

“If he can prescribe medicine, he’s a doctor in my books!”

“It wasn’t going to happen.”

“Well, when is it going to happen, Anat? You’re thirty eight years old, you know. Your ovaries aren’t getting any younger! And after 35 fertility–“

“I know about fertility rates, Mom. I’m just busy with the new job and the new city and I haven’t met the right person yet.”

“Listen,” said Mom. “I’m being serious.”

“You think I’m not being serious?”

“Sweetie, listen. Your whole life, you’ve been struggling just to get your feet under you. It’s not your fault, but you’re here, you made it. You’ve got a good job, you’re in a new city, you’ve even got a condo you love.”

“You say that, but–“

“But nothing. I know it’s not perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. I’m telling you, all the things that you wanted to do, everything you’ve been putting off until you got your life together, whether that’s getting married or having kids or, I don’t know, writing a novel, I don’t care. Whatever it is, for you, now is the time that you get to do it.”

I thought about it. I thought about the kids I wanted to have with Brett before he started throwing plates. I thought about the Rimbaud notebooks in the back of my closet. I thought about that time when I was 15, the prophecy, and then I needed to stop thinking.

“Of course,” Mom continued, “even if it isn’t your only goal, you can still have kids. I’m not saying you have to choose. We have feminism now! You can have it all!”

“You’re just saying that because you want grandkids.”

“Anat. I’m 68 years old. Of course I want grandkids. Take it as a given.”

“Can’t you just put in a word with your pal God? He helped Sarah conceive when she was 90.”

“Anat Bethesda Meagel! Don’t joke about this!”

“I’m not joking, Mom.

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