Mother's and Flies

Marke:

The older woman had collapsed in the subway car 10 minutes before the train reached the stop. A few had bustled to her side while the rest spread out to give her space. Marke Emblemen stood, grasping the car's bar to avoid looking at the scene at the other end of the vehicle. Tears had crept into his eyes, and once the doors released the waiting crowd, he bolted on the platform. 

Someone had called the ambulance, and the paramedics rushed down the subway steps, a crowd observing and blocking his exit. The paramedics barely squeezing through.

Marke sighed and felt defeat and settled on the nearest bench. His work bag sitting on his lap. He checked his watch. 8:20 pm. Great not going to be home in time for dinner either, Marke thought to himself. Lysia is going to be so irate that he is late for the third time this week alone. This time he couldn't help it.

People shuffled about in the crowd, and another man sat next to Marke on the bench.

"Seems like everyone is dropping like flies these days." He says to Marke.

"Sure, yeah." Marke wipes tears from the corner of his eyes.

"Aww, sir, I am sorry. I didn't realize it would upset you." He says, "My name is Alexander Taub, I only said that because I lost my mother a year ago. Seems to be a pattern of the elderly going lately is all."

"Your... your mother passed, too?" Marke asked.

"Yeah. My kids lost their cat last week, too. I... umm, didn't see the poor thing when I was pulling into our driveway. This is the wife's punishment for me for the next five months.

Marke couldn't help but laugh. He immediately blushed at the disrespect towards Mr. Taub's pet being run over. "I'm sorry, just the way you said that, and then the wife thing."

"Yeah, don't feel bad." Taub chuckled. "The thing was a bastard anyway. Kept clawing at things he shouldn't. But because I love them, I got to love what they love, right?"

"Speaking of which, this whole curfuffle is causing me to be late for dinner with my wife. We agreed to romance more since my mother's passing a year ago as well. It's still raw for me."

"It won't ever stop being raw, either," Taub says. He reaches his hand out to shake Marke's.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Taub," Marke says, receiving his hand.

"What do you say we push through this crowd to get home to our families?" Mr. Taub says, standing up.

"Sounds like a plan."

*****

Taub:

"How are you doing, buddy?" Marke asks, handing the coffee from Starbuck's to Taub.

"Found out the wife's pregnant again," Taub says, less than happy.

"I'm never going to sleep soundly ever again. I can handle making money, the house being a mess. Sure. But the sleep thing. I need to sleep to be able to cope with other things."

"I am glad Lysia hasn't gotten pregnant yet. We have agreed to hold off five years to conceive."

"Wish I would have thought of that. But the whole being Jewish thing, not really smiled upon in our culture."

"Ehhh, well, I am just glad you have your religion and conviction. Not many people have that these days."

"Do you go to church or something?" Taub asks.

"We aren't religious, but we pray. I think the last time I was in a church or listened to a preacher speak was at my mother's funeral."

"Right," Taub says. "Well, it has been a week since that old woman had collapsed on the subway. How are you doing, having witnessed that?"

"A little traumatic, just thinking about how my Mom looked when she passed. Other than that..."

"I understand. You just can't get that image out of your head. Remembering them before they passed and then imagining what they looked like the moment it happened. Seeing them at the proceeding."

"We cremated my Mom, though. She had stage 4 breast cancer and dementia. She had got out of the care home and fell down some steps. Instant death, they said from the way she landed." Marke says.

"I'm so sorry..." Taub begins. "Man, you are probably tired of hearing that. My Mom went in her sleep, nothing that hardcore."

"What makes it worse is she was looking for me. She had a habit of slipping into that state and getting worried that I had wandered off as a child in a grocery store. So she'd come looking for me. She was a strong one too, some nurses could barely confine her to her room when she would act up."

"I'm-" Taub begins but closes his mouth and gulps his coffee. I could probably say I'm sorry thousands of times over, and " it wouldn't mean a thing. A sorry can't bring someone back from the dead or heal someone's sadness. Maybe that is why I didn't bother really saying sorry to the kids after running the cat over. They're too young to suffer loss in any way.

"Well, good news, I'm getting a promotion at work. Supervisor." Marke says, patting himself on the back. "Wouldn't ever have happened unless my Mom taught me work ethic. All for her honor."

"That's great. New things for both of us." Taub cheers as they sit on the park bench, watching the birds flock to the old man on the opposite bench scattering birdseed to the pigeons. "My mother used to feed the birds while she gossipped with her friends."

"What is it about women and gossipping?" Marke asks. "It seems my wife Lysia has a habit of getting into everyone's business; she ought not to tell everyone our business. Like, we had a fight the other night, right?" Marke says, gesturing with his hands to emphasize. "All over how to arrange the silverware. What normal couple argues over something so trivial? Then she makes it out as if I was the bad guy in it all, her friend calls me up and tells me that being irritable is a sign of poorly dealt with grief and that I need to join a group or something."

"Nosey!" Taub laughs.

"I know. I told her that she needs to just mind her own business and keep an eye on her children and stop letting them run wild in the neighborhood. Then I hung up."

"Good for you."

"Lysia then told me she wasn't wrong in venting but that her friend was wrong in following up when everything was supposed to just be a secret between them. I told her it was okay. Just remind her that our business is our business, and unless there is abuse, she has no right to get involved."

"But women will never get that through their heads. Heck, I don't think anyone these days knows how to mind their own business regardless of gender." Marke says, sipping more coffee.

"You think he does this every day or just occasionally?"

"Could be either. I don't want to end up a lonely old man feeding birds on a Saturday afternoon." Taub says.

"Neither do I. I'd rather be sitting here chewing the fat with an old friend throwing pebbles at the damned things instead."

"You and me both, friend. You and me both."

They give each other cheers and continue enjoying the rainy afternoon in the park.