'Should I Pick Up Chinese?'
The Call
Calling off was never your thing.
Each day you left for dawn, did
the drive
though things have been tense
I called today on your sick day.
Week by week my schedule
was the same, leave at four
home in 20,
like clockwork.
Sure and dependable.
Tonight, if you could eat,
I'd bring Chinese?
Your favorite.
No chicken soup for you.
No.
Just come home.
Call over.
Line dead.
That waxy landline receiver
kinked to the wall in a dirty wire spiral
still at my ear.
Hands like ice,
breath stoppered behind my lips.
For twenty six years we spoke
on the phone
plans made
secrets shared
tears and love
now frozen and cold cold cold.
Still,
tears of ice burned my eyes
scalded my cheeks.
They knew what I didn't.
The caw-caw-caw of the broken connection
in my ear urged me to do it.
You were already gone.
The leaving completed once the phone was cradled.
But in the moment
you could still love me,
In this moment we were still us.
In this paper-strewn backroom
we were talking until I hung up.
I could sign out and
get Chinese on the way home.
We won't need fortune cookies.
No need to read ahead in this story.
About the Creator
Judey Kalchik
It's my time to find and use my voice.
Poetry, short stories, memories, and a lot of things I think and wish I'd known a long time ago.
You can also find me on Medium
And please follow me on Threads, too!
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Compelling and original writing
Creative use of language & vocab
Easy to read and follow
Well-structured & engaging content
Excellent storytelling
Original narrative & well developed characters
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
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The Ritual of Winter Challenge Winners
Welcome to the Winners Announcement for The Ritual of Winter challenge. This prompt focused on winter rituals and the meaning that settles into them over time. The top pieces stay grounded in ordinary acts and repeated routines, letting winter shape the work through pace, attention, and restraint.
By Vocal Curation Team3 days ago in Resources
Comments (9)
Wooohooooo congratulations on your win! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
Creative! Story-infused poems draw me in every time 👏🏾
I believe a lot of people have had calls like this and not knowing if it was real or not. This is one relationship that needs to talk.
Haunting and beautiful
Very sad and with a very powerful narrative. Well written.
Judey, this is so moving. I am not one to tear up with poetry ( except Rudyard’s poem ‘If’) yet I believe yours now came the closest in a long while.
Oh, such a sad piece, bringing with it some memories of a better time.
Jk - While deployed in Japan my neighbor, Mrs. Kim, taught me how to eat rice with chop sticks: 'Lieutenant, if your getting it in your mouth and not losing a lot of weight you're doing it right.' - I know not too evocative; don't even know what that means..! btw; that thing hanging from the wall with the twisted cord is an enigma to the gen z's..! Best - jk.bud.in.la.
Wow Judey, that was evocative....and said a lot about how a relationship and all its memorable, everyday routines like eating Chinese can disappear in a single moment. Heartbreaking and introspective.