The Best American Magazine Writing 2020 by Sid Holt

Author:Sid Holt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

* * *

While Jerry could still swallow, he ate half a piece of a cherry pie made by Jay Sumner’s wife, Janna. His eyes had a faraway look, and he ate small bites slowly and gratefully. It was the last thing he ate.

Eventually he began to cough. The cough turned into a rattle and then a gurgle, like the sound an irrigation pipe makes right as the water chases the last of the air out of it.

Now and then his body convulsed, as it does when you’re drifting off to sleep and suddenly you dream that you’re falling. He started to sweat, and asked politely if we could turn the heat down, even though it wasn’t on. Janet put a cool washcloth on his brow. When his lips cracked, we smeared them with Bee Balm—the lotion he once made out of the beeswax from his hives.

We held vigil over his bed, shuffling seats around him, ceding chairs to our superiors in the hierarchy of closeness. The grandchildren entertained themselves outside, throwing leaves at each other under the maple. Duncan’s wife, Jana, sang Norah Jones. For long stretches, Hilly sat at the old saloon piano and played: Satie’s “Gymnopédies,” “Ave Maria,” and a piece called “Ode to Life,” written by the jazz pianist Don Pullen after the death of his friend.

Jerry’s eyes brightened with the music. “Wow,” he whispered. “Wow.” They were his final words.

The gurgle in his chest took on the sound of a coffee percolator right before it’s finished brewing a pot, like the sound of gravel falling into a hole. His body was a tool he was not quite ready to set down. I took a seat at his writing desk, beside his bed, and found a scrap of paper with his handwriting. “Let the great world spin,” it read.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.