Benny’s
Phone Call
Benny
died, and Karen, one of his twelve
children,
did not get a chance to have the talk
she
had been putting off, and now she felt
guilty
and unresolved. Then she got a phone
call
in the middle of the night one year after
Benny’s
funeral, and to her astonishment,
it
was her father. They talked about her guilt,
her drinking,
and the problems with her mother,
and he
told her that he loved her and not to
worry
because everything would be all right,
and
he said goodnight. Karen hung the phone
up and
sat down on a kitchen chair, not knowing
if
she was dreaming or awake; then one of her
children
walked into the kitchen, and she
said,
“Mommy, I can’t sleep.”
In
memory of a good friend.
Composed
in Nipigon, Ontario,
Date
unknown
