Coffin Money - 5

Day 1 at home

When David and Anna brought Sarah home, the first thing she said when David wheeled her in a wheelchair was, “Oh my God, what’s this stench?”

“Kinda hits you on the nose, doesn’t it, when you first enter?” David said. “We tried to clean it out as much as we could, but the persistent animal poop and pee smell is hard to get rid of.”

“No, I mean the bleach! Did someone use the bleach to clean here? I hate that smell!”

“Ok, I’ll open the windows to air it out,” Anna gave David an I-told-you-so look.

“But then it will be drafty, and I will catch a cold!”

“So, should I not open the windows then?” Anna asked.

“Shouldn’t have used the bleach in the first place! I only clean with water, nothing else.”

“No wonder all her dishes are so greasy,” Anna mumbled to David quietly.

“What did she say?” Sarah yelled at David.

“Nothing, mother.”

“She said something about me.”

“I’m here, you know,” Anna said.

“Then you talk to my face, don’t mumble. Maybe open the windows in the bedroom only? I won’t be able to sleep there with this bleach stench.”

When Anna went into the bedroom to open the windows, Sarah asked David quietly, “Did you find my coffin money while cleaning?”

“Who? You mean us? We didn’t clean the apartment ourselves. We hired a cleaning service with pet equipment.”

“Oh my God, how stupid is that? What if they found my coffin money?”

“Well, I guess it’s gone then, and you will have nothing to obsess about, mother.”

“I’ve been saving this money for 30 years, just so that I could be buried in a decent coffin, not some cheap plywood box!”

“You don’t have to worry about that, mother, you know we will take care of everything.”

“You just say so to calm me down. I know it will be she who’ll handle everything. And if she could have it her way, she’d just cremate me, I’m sure…” Sarah followed Anna with her eyes as she was coming out of the bedroom and got a glimpse of her own image in the mirror on the wall.

“Oh my God, that cannot be me! Is it? I look so… old, frail, and sickly.”

“You’ve lost a lot of weight, mother, in the last week or so,” David said.

“It’s because they didn’t give me any good food at that damn hospital!”

“No, it’s because you refused to eat what they told you to eat, couldn’t keep your food down, and upset your old ulcer.”

“I’ve never had any ulcer, I’m as healthy as a…”

“Cow, yes, mother, you said that many times. But the doctors found an old untreated ulcer in your stomach.”

“Sure, what else did they find? Cancer? They’d tell you anything, not to take responsibility for their incompetence. ‘She has cancer, we can’t do anything for her, she’s too old, it’s inoperable, her heart will fail during the operation’ – I’ve heard that so many times when I was there,” Sarah said, mocking her doctor.

“Did they tell that to you?” David tried to hide his face while helping Sarah to move from the wheelchair to the hospital bed Anna set up in the bedroom.

“No, to a couple of other patients.”

“See, they would have told you if you had cancer. The doctor said you had ulcer and should eat better, to let it heal.”

“Uh-hmm, meaning no red meat, more porridge, soups and vegetables?”

“Exactly, see, you know all this!”

“But I want meeeeeeat! You know I can’t live without meat.”

“Vegetarians do, and live quite well.”

“You do not expect me to suddenly become a vegetarian, at my age?”

“Why not? For the sake of your own health. Don’t you want to get better, mother?”

“What’s the point of restricting yourself from the only thing that brings you joy?”

“Eating meat is the only joy in your life, mother?”

“Eating what I want! And yes, eating meat. By the way, I’ve been also craving for pomegranates and persimmons these last days. Would you please buy them for me?”

“They are not on the list of the recommended foods and might be a little too acidic for you. I’ll ask the doctor tomorrow.”

Anna had to go back to running her business, but David stayed with his mother to spend the night. They decided she could not be left on her own.

In the middle of the night, David woke up from noises in the kitchen. He heard his mother pouring and eating something. When he went into the kitchen, she was sitting at the table, slurping her favorite black tea with milk and eating a piece of white bread with honey on it. All her pet children were circling the kitchen table, as she was feeding them small pet treats.

“Mother! You’ve had enough strength to get out of the bed and treat yourself in the middle of the night?” David was actually excited to see her smile ear to ear.

“They didn’t find it, you know. It’s all still there,” she said, very pleased with herself.

“What are you talking about, mom?”

“My coffin money, what else!”

“There you go again with your coffin money! Will you be able to get back to bed on your own?” David asked and when Sarah nodded, went back to sleep on the sofa in the living room.

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