I saw a ghost today
Okay, not really.
I was in the supermarket and I passed this man at a check out. He was wearing ill fitting jeans and a dark shirt. Brown hair cut in a mullet. Chubby cheeks, double chin, angular hawk nose and wide open eyes.
'That looks like Uncle Tom,' I thought.
Then I remembered that it couldn't be Tom because Tom is dead.
He died this past December. The tox results should be back by now. Accidental overdose on pain killers is what we're expecting.
Mom was devastated. He was her brother and they hadn't spoken in nearly seven years. I hadn't seen him in at least that long. She'd always hoped they'd reconcile.
I didn't cry at the funeral. We'd been close once, but he'd been a stranger for nearly a decade. I came close when I watched his sons, who hadn't seen him in fourteen years, lower the urn into the frozen ground.
They looked so hurt. So lost. So angry.
Today I kept walking through the supermarket after seeing his ringer. Unable to make myself look a second time. Eyes burning.
I was in the supermarket and I passed this man at a check out. He was wearing ill fitting jeans and a dark shirt. Brown hair cut in a mullet. Chubby cheeks, double chin, angular hawk nose and wide open eyes.
'That looks like Uncle Tom,' I thought.
Then I remembered that it couldn't be Tom because Tom is dead.
He died this past December. The tox results should be back by now. Accidental overdose on pain killers is what we're expecting.
Mom was devastated. He was her brother and they hadn't spoken in nearly seven years. I hadn't seen him in at least that long. She'd always hoped they'd reconcile.
I didn't cry at the funeral. We'd been close once, but he'd been a stranger for nearly a decade. I came close when I watched his sons, who hadn't seen him in fourteen years, lower the urn into the frozen ground.
They looked so hurt. So lost. So angry.
Today I kept walking through the supermarket after seeing his ringer. Unable to make myself look a second time. Eyes burning.
