Chris' mom, Bonnie, belongs to a writing group where the meeting organizer brings a basket of items to spawn writings from several people who have lost loved ones. Thank you for sharing, Bonnie.
February 2006 - The prompt for his writing was a basketful of miscellaneous items.
I am drawn right away to the deck of cards. I learned after Chris died that when he went to Vermont to visit his college friends, they would stay up all night playing cards. I was so surprised at that. I don’t remember Chris being especially interested in cards except for the usual childhood games like “Go Fish” or “Crazy Eights”.
Something about this mysterious card playing both shocked and amused me. Although I thought I knew Chris, here was evidence to the contrary.
A small detail, to be sure. But what else don’t I know? Somehow I held the assumption, unknown to me consciously, that because Chris was a part of me and I was a part of him, because in his early years I knew him so intimately, that knowledge grew with him. Not true. Another maternal assumption bites the dust, like the assumption that I would be able to protect Chris from all evil, from the evil of cancer.
Now there is yet another piece of Chris to mourn the loss of. I have lost the chance to know Chris past, Chris present, and Chris future.
I have been in touch with A.J. Chris’ best friend from Vermont and fellow card player. But so far I haven’t asked A.J. what card games kept Chris up all night. Why not? Such a trivial question. I can only guess that I don’t want to add “poker player” or “whist player” to my already long, sad list of things I miss about Chris.
As I finished writing, I noticed that the ace of hearts was the top card. How apropos!
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The game was called Pitch, a four person game with teams of two. I think it is similar to bridge.
ReplyDeleteChris was fairly competitive and each team did a lot of trash talking to psyche the other out. Ahh. good times.
-Bec