The Reminder

Saying that today has been a long day is a serious understatement. I look at the clock that reads eight-thirty. My stomach growls more intensely every five minutes. I open the front door and head straight to the fridge. The only thing left is a quarter of milk in the carton, however, the slice of chocolate cake catches my eye. I stare at it for ten seconds before slamming the fridge door. I lean my back against the fridge and slide down onto the floor. I can’t believe this is happening. The tears falling down my face are uncontrollable. Maybe a shower will help me disguise them. However, the time to do that is cut short when a knock bangs on my door. Before I open the door I wipe all the tears from my face and shake my head to focus. I open the door to reveal Tommy standing on the other side. I wish he called first.

“Let me guess, the neighbors let you in the building?” I groan sarcastically.

“Yeah, they’re way too trusting,” he jokes as he casually walks inside.

“Come on in, I guess.”

“How’re you doing?”

I take a deep breath and do my best to let out the words “I’m okay.”

“I’ve had such a shitty day.” He whines as he sits on the couch. I sit on the couch chair adjacent to him.

“What’s going on?” I respond with underwhelming concern.

“My boss Anthony keeps giving me shit. He gives me mountains of paperwork to do and then telling me my work performance isn’t ‘what the company desires’. Like dude, they’re trying to make me a one-man department and it's pissing me off.”

“Uh-huh.” I politely let out. Hopefully, he’ll be able to tell I’m tired.

“Then, when I go to take a quick break to get a drink at the water cooler and catch up with Jerry, Anthony wants to tell me ‘maybe you should spend less time talking and more time doing your work and you won’t be so behind.’ like come on man, I’m not a machine. Human beings are social creatures, you know? We can’t just spend all eight hours a day every day working nonstop. When do we just get to live our lives?”

I respond while letting out a sigh with “So quit then.”

“And do what? I have no desire for anything anymore. I can’t turn on the TV anymore without turning it on, flipping through channels, and then turning it off. I’m too tired to even make dinner to the point where I just eat a bowl of cereal or nothing at all for dinner then just go to bed. Only to do it all again the next day.”

“That’s crazy,” I retort.

“But yeah, that’s what’s going on with me. Did you end up going to dinner with your dad? It’s his birthday right?”

Based on that response, all I can do is nod my head.

“That’s cool. How was it?”

“I’m sorry Tommy, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m kind of tired and I’d like to just go to bed.” I finally blurt out.

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry, I did just come over unannounced. I’ll talk to you tomorrow then?”

“Sure.”

Finally, he gets up and lets himself out. I go to lock the door behind him when my door buzzer goes off. I can’t even get a minute of silence today. I press down on the button. “Yeah?”

A familiar voice comes out of the intercom. “Hey, it’s Mark. Are you busy?” He asks.

“I’m kind of tired.”

“Okay, I’ve got Chinese food if you’re hungry. I haven’t heard from you in a couple of weeks. I thought I’d see how you’re doing.”

My stomach growls again. I can’t turn down free food. “Okay, I’ll buzz you in,” I responded. Did everyone just decide that my apartment was the place to go without calling ahead? Today of all days. Mark knocks on the door then lets himself in.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asks

“Why do you ask?” I respond

“I got a call from your sister. She told me I should check up on you.”

“Did she also tell you to bring me food?”

“No, I just know you well enough that you probably wouldn’t let me in this late without a bribe.”

That made me chuckle a little bit. He’s completely right.

“I also brought you a little pick me up as well.” He says as he takes out the ingredients for a tequila sunrise.

“You do know me,” I say with half a smile. He opens the fridge to chill some glasses for some reason. Why he does that, I don’t know.

“Can I try a bite of your cake? It looks amazing.”

“No!” I shout angrily back. This scares him. My body starts to shake and tears start to form in my eyes, as that was the most emotion I’ve been able to let out all day. I fall to my knees and weep uncontrollably.

“Woah, Woah, what’s going on? Talk to me.” Mark says with concern as he rushes over to pick me up and help me to the couch.

“It’s my dad Mark. He… He...”

“Yeah?”

“It’s his birthday today. We have this thing we do where every special occasion we would have dessert before dinner. Well, this year I planned to take him out for dinner but I also made a small cake for him to eat. I told him he would get sick and not eat at the restaurant if he ate it all right now. He said he wasn’t feeling too good but I made him go anyway. By the time the entrees came out, he started having a heart attack. The ambulances were too slow. He died as I held his hand on the way to the hospital. I don’t have the heart to throw out that slice of cake. Chocolate was his favorite, you know?” Tears fall even harder now. All I wanted to do was go to bed so I could stop thinking about it. This is too hard.

Mark just stares at me with his arms wrapped around me for comfort. He sits there in silence as I can see he doesn’t know what to say or how to help me. “I’m so sorry.” He says with remorse.

“I didn’t want to deal with this right now. I just want this to stop.” I cry out.

“Well, I’ve never had to deal with what you’re going through yet. I’m just the guy people call when they need help. But this is out of my expertise. So, you know what you need?”

“What?” I utter, sniffling as I wipe the tears from my eyes.

“You need a distraction and sitting in your room alone won’t help. So I say tonight, we eat some of this Chinese food, drink until you forget what happened today, and just have a chill and relaxed time.”

I look him in the eye. Maybe it could help. At the very least, it couldn’t hurt. So I nod my head in agreement.

“First things first.” He retorts. “Let’s eat the cake. For your dad.”

We both stand up and walk to the fridge. I grab the cake and a fork and set them on the counter. I stare at it for a second. Mark puts his hand on my shoulder letting me know that it’s going to be okay.

“Happy Birthday Dad,” I say as I grab the fork and scarf down as much of the cake as I can. It’s gone in less than a minute. Mark then grabs two plates and starts to put down some Chinese food on them. I grab the two chilled glasses and start to prepare the drinks. “How are we feeling tonight?” I say as I open the vodka bottle.

“Strong.” He responds. We both laugh as I pour the drinks. Tonight, I celebrate dad’s birthday. Tomorrow, I plan his funeral.