2002: los angeles
last wish
[Larry comes into his parents’ apartment.]
Larry: hey dad, how you doin’?
Nat: alright, doin’ fine, yeah. so how’d you get
here?
Larry: i had the cab drop me off on my way back
from the airport, and cheryl took it on home.
Nat: hey, i could’ve picked you up you know.
Larry: how you doin’, okay? how come…i called
you a couple of times, you never got back to me.
Nat: i was busy, you know, i got busy.
Larry: You got busy? What do you mean you
got busy? What are you doing you’re so busy?
Nat: let me make you a cup of coffee. You
wanna sit down and have a cup?
Larry: i don’t want any, no, i just came to check
up on you—how’s Mom doing?
Nat: Oh, well, you know how people do, so,
uhh…tell me about new York! did you have a
good time in new York? it was busy?
Larry: What’s, what’s the…You seem very
jumpy. What’s the matter with you?
Nat: Well, you know, i didn’t expect you to come
in today; i really didn’t know you were here.
Larry: Where’s Mom?
Nat: Well, your mother, well i’ll tell you all about
your mother. after all, you know, we brought her
back, you know, your mother. she got sicker, and
we had to bring her back to the hospital.
Larry: she’s in the hospital.
Nat: Well, yeah, not now. not now. That’s um…
Well, we had to bring her back for a little while
and that’s um…
Larry: Why didn’t you even tell me? You didn’t
call me.
Nat: Well, she didn’t want to bother you, you
know how she is. she said, “don’t uh, don’t
bother him, he’s in new York. let him enjoy
himself.” she didn’t want to spoil your trip. But
uh, she’s not in the hospital now, so that’s, that’s
over with. don’t worry about that.
Larry: so she’s feeling better?
Nat: Well, in a way. she did warn me, she said,
“if anything happens to me, don’t bother, don’t
bother larry, because he’s in new York, he wants
to enjoy…” so then, after a day or two, nobody
goes on forever and ever and ever, and uh—you’re
not gonna go on, I’m not gonna go on…
Larry: she died?
Nat: Uh, yeah. dead. dead. she’s dead.
[Silence.]
Nat: she didn’t want me to bother you.
Larry: What does that mean?
Nat: Well, you were in new York, you were having a good time, so we didn’t, uh, we didn’t call.
Larry: When did she die?
Nat: let’s see, the funeral was on Monday…
Larry: The what?
Nat: …so she had to die on…
Larry: The funeral?
Nat: Yeah. The funeral.
