Contest #61 winner 🏆

128 comments

Contemporary Fiction

I caught a late flight from the west coast to the funeral. Landed in Pittsburgh at four in the morning, not early enough to check into my hotel and get any sleep, not late enough to have gotten any real rest on the plane. My eyes felt heavy and itchy as I went through the motions of picking up my bags, catching a cab to the dingy hotel I’d selected for affordability, dropping off my bags, and picking up a greasy Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast sandwich just as the sun was rising. 

It was mid-May, but it was cold in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania didn’t really get the springtime memo until June, and then it was three months of pushing-ninety-percent humidity. I’d almost forgotten after my sunny years in California. 

Meet me there, my brother had texted me, seventeen dull and numb hours ago. I’ve finalized arrangements. You just have to be there a little beforehand to test out the mic.

My response had been quick, dashed-off, an attempt to belie how heavy my hands felt. Yep

I finished the breakfast sandwich just as the grimy cab I’d called pulled up to the drab, cramped building where I’d be spending the morning. The sky was gray, not threatening rain or snow, no clouds visible really; gray was just the color the sky was this time of year. And the air was dense and stuffy enough it felt like this whole street was indoors somewhere. Like maybe this was all a set stage, flat as cardboard, and I was moving through a world that didn’t breathe. 

The cab pulled away. It left a smell of wet gas behind. I approached the door, letting the smell of clean and plain and sterile things replace it. 

A man in a dark, dull suit exactly like mine awaited me on the other side, his face already trained in careful sympathy.

“Ah,” he said. “You must be John.”

I gave what I hoped was a convincing half-smile. “I hope I’m not too early.”

“Not at all. Sam told us to expect you around now.”

Sam’s voice came from the right. “Hey, Jack.” 

I looked up. He was standing in the doorway to the next room, his suit the same colors as mine and the funeral director’s - I’d forgotten, too, how monochrome the colors were here. Though they were surely more monochrome for this occasion. His face was a little paler than I remembered - was that for the occasion, too, or was it the result of his having moved to Vermont when I took off for California? I wondered if I was pale, or if my suntan looked rude here in the north in the gray spring. 

“Good to see you,” he said. 

I nodded awkwardly. “Yeah. You - uh - you too.” 

The silence between us stretched a little too long. I became aware, peripherally yet in an almost overwhelming way, that I was surrounded by nothing but tan and beige and brown - brown and brown and brown, a million shades of the same dirt-color. Surrounded like I was being buried alive.

“How long’s it been?” I asked, clutching for a conversation thread.

“Oh, three or four years, hasn’t it?” 

Three or four years. It sounded right. I hadn’t had the chance to visit Dad with Sam - I visited him alone, a few months ago, but it was a weekend Sam was busy with work and we couldn’t coordinate. I’d said goodbye to Dad alone, without knowing - or knowing a little, knowing in the way you always know a little - that it was goodbye. 

“Excuse me,” I said. “Where’s your restroom?”

The funeral director pointed it out, and I hastened away. No one else was there when I entered; I headed straight for a sink and turned on the tap, splashing freezing-cold water on my face. That shock offset the numbness a little, and got me to stop thinking about being buried in dirt. 

I examined myself in the mirror. No, there wasn’t a spot of paleness on my face. My eyes weren’t bloodshot, despite my night without sleep. My hair was even neatly arranged. And despite my reflections that all our suits looked the same, mine was clearly expensive, well-tailored. I was every inch the bright young professional. 

Had it really been four years? 

They took me to the room where his casket was. Folding chairs stood in neat rows waiting for the rest of the family, and up front was the podium and the mic. I fingered the index cards in my jacket pocket as I approached it. 

“How’s it sound?” I asked, leaned down into the mic. 

“Don’t lean down like that,” said the funeral director. “Stand straight, like you will when you’re doing the real eulogy. We’ll adjust the mic for you.”

I straightened, working not to look embarrassed. “Is this better?”

“Just fine.” The director moved toward the back of the room. “Could you give us the first few words of the address, and I’ll make sure the sound reaches back here?”

A slight flush entered my cheeks despite my best efforts. Stupid, to be embarrassed at the beginning of a speech I’d written myself, that I’d known I was coming to read out to everyone in my family. But it suddenly felt silly and sentimental. Not the kind of thing I wanted to read out as test audio in front of no one but my brother and a stranger. 

Stupid. I cleared my throat and pulled out my first index card. “Uh, when - when I was around eight years old, my dad started making olive bread on Saturdays.” 

I heard my voice project to the back of the room. I knew the sound was good, that the funeral director and Sam had both heard every word. I nodded quickly and stepped down without looking at them. I tucked the card away again, my eyes on the dirt-beige carpet, mind working fast to paper over my senseless self-consciousness. But before I could entirely remove myself from the scene, I heard my brother’s tiny, quiet intake of breath. 

Oh, he must know what I was going to talk about. Dad’s olive bread was the kind of stupid heartwarming mush you heard around Christmas time on the radio. He started out terrible at it, he’d never baked a day in his life, but Sam and I would choke it down to make him feel better. We’d tell him it was the best olive bread we’d ever had - it was a joke between the two of us, because it wasn’t really a lie. We’d never had olive bread from anyone else. But over the years, as gray springs like this melted into heavy, humid summers and then into the glorious kind of vibrant orange-and-red autumns you can’t find anywhere in the south, his craft improved. We started looking forward to the smell of fresh baking on Saturday afternoons. We’d charge down the stairs when the oven dinged, and demand olive bread slices right this second, not a thought in our heads anymore about his feelings. And he’d be so pleased we liked it that he wouldn’t even hold back for fear we’d lose our dinner appetites. 

I hadn’t had any olive bread since I left for California. That was longer than four years, coming up on a decade now. But I still remembered the later years, when Sam and I were in high school and slammed with sleep-crushing work, or bickering over whose turn it was to take the trash out, and then the smell of that olive bread would waft up into our room and we’d brighten, and stand to charge down the stairs, and decide another week was worth getting through if we had Dad’s olive bread to spoil our appetites with. 

I knew Sam knew that was what my eulogy was about. If I’d looked up then, when I heard the little breath-intake from the back of the room, maybe we could have connected. Had a real conversation, said something of what we were really feeling. But I was already halfway through the process of covering my feelings up again, and there was no chance for honesty now.

It wasn’t long after that the rest of the family started arriving. 

Concealment was easier in a crowd. Aunts and uncles and cousins swarming around me, telling me I looked well, complimenting my suit which was the same color as theirs but a better style - all attempting the same trick of light, grief-free conversation - meant I could simply coast through the room without thinking too hard. Only a couple of people were openly grieving. Hanging by the walls, eyes on the casket, voices strained and cracked when they spoke. I kept my interactions with them to a minimum. Just enough to be polite. I kept my posture straight and my words calm and my face neutral through the whole ordeal, and was mentally congratulating myself by the time everyone was seated and the funeral proper ready to start. 

Sam was far away. I saw him in glimpses, but his posture was straight too, his words calm, face neutral. What upstanding sons we were.

I didn’t pay attention to what was said before I went up for the eulogy. My ears were buzzing, and I welcomed it - another layer to add to the numbness. Easier to block everything out until this was all over. I was already fantasizing about that dingy hotel room I’d dropped my bags in a few hours ago, and what a long, welcome sleep I’d get on the cheap spring mattress after the funeral got out. And then later, how nice it would be to emerge from my plane into bright southern California, where everyone’s clothes were colorful and palm trees were more common than maple and oak. 

My name was called - John, the son of the deceased - and I was poised when I stood and approached the podium. I gave that half-convincing half-smile to the crowd, and stood tall, sure the microphone would pick me up. 

I talked about olive bread. My voice didn’t tremble. Others in the audience cried, but I ignored them. 

______

I thought I was in the clear when Sam approached me outside.

Farewells had all been said, and I was halfway in my cab, when he and his pale Vermont face appeared in front of me again. I paused, blinking, wondering if he was here to tell me I’d forgotten something.

But he stammered a little when he spoke. “D’you - is it all right if I crash with you?” 

I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Of course he needed somewhere to stay, too, before he caught a flight back up north. And we were brothers, after all, and we’d shared a room for most of our childhood. But the request took me aback all the same. And the red in his cheeks, as though he’d confessed to something shameful, told me he understood my confusion just as well as I did. It had been three or four years now.

“Well, sure,” I said, “but I don’t have an extra bed.”

“I’ll take the couch.” 

And once we were both in the cab I didn’t have it in me to care anymore, whether Sam was here or not. My all-nighter had caught up to me. The sky was gray, and the sandwich I picked up from another out-of-the-way fast food place for lunch was tasteless, and it was spring in the place my father had lived and died. We got to the hotel room, and I kicked off my shoes and threw off my jacket, and went to sleep on the bed with the rest of my funeral clothes on. 

______

I slept a long, long time. Ridiculously long. I should have woken in the evening, when Sam must have gotten off the couch where he’d crashed and left the hotel room. Or I should have woken when it was dark, and I’d missed dinner and slept longer than I had since I was a child. Or I should have woken when the sun rose, its murky light oozing through the hotel curtains to show me a world where my father was surrounded by dirt. 

But in the end it was the smell that woke me.

When I opened my eyes, I thought it all must have been a dream. The funeral, the death, the goodbye, the four years not seeing Sam, California - all a dream, and I was still in high school struggling through stupid Latin vocabulary. And maybe I’d fallen asleep at my desk midafternoon. Because the smell, strong and hearty and heady and warm, was one that always greeted me an hour before dinner.

I didn’t understand the scene in front of me. Sam in a rumpled t-shirt and jeans, lines around and under his eyes, his hair a little receded from his forehead - not high-school Sam, but someone older. Holding a cutting board in one hand and a knife in the other.

“What…” I murmured, and my voice wasn’t my high-school voice. 

“Wake up, Jack,” Sam said, and his voice was like none I’d ever heard from him before.

It hadn’t been a dream. I kicked myself up into a sitting position and I knew it was all read. Dad was dead and Sam and I were orphans. But Sam had Dad’s olive bread in his hands - freshly baked, not a relic of some last act of baking but something that hadn’t existed when we were putting Dad’s body in the ground. Dark and thick and soft and mouthwatering.

“I made this,” Sam said. “Dad gave me the recipe before he died. And there was an oven downstairs.” 

I looked up at him. Emotions spiked up sharp and hot from my stomach to my throat. I’d done such an admirable job swallowing them yesterday, but I’d slept so long, and the bread smelled so good, and I so strongly felt I was back in our old house and young again, and Sam looked a little like Dad with his hair receding like that -

“You’d better eat.” Sam set the cutting board down on the nightstand. “I’ll cut you some.”

“Sam.” 

Embarrassment had crumbled. The word was hushed, and cracked, and loaded. When he turned away from the bread and toward me, I knew he saw my eyes were starting to swim. Stupid salt water filling them up so I could hardly see him, but he saw me.

He was gentle, drawing me to my feet and wrapping his arms around me. Like I was still his baby brother and he was still resolved to take care of me. I was more forceful when I hugged him back, clutching at his t-shirt as though that would ground me here. We didn’t say a word, not a question or an apology. My tears streamed silent down onto his shoulder. A second later, before I could even think to be self-conscious, I felt he was crying too. 

“I’ve missed you,” he murmured. 

“I’ve missed you too.” I sounded like a child. 

“We’re going to get through this.”

I held him tighter.

“Jack -” he choked on a sob, sudden and explosive. “I love you, Jack.”

I shut my eyes, and for a moment there was nothing, nothing in the world but the bread. 

Four years it had been. And nearly ten since I’d left Pittsburgh the first time. And nothing would ever be the same again without Dad, of course I knew that - and it wouldn’t be long until I was off to California again, to soak in the sun and forget about this bleak chilly town. Yet still, despite everything, this morning Sam and I were about to gorge ourselves on Dad’s olive bread again. And that was enough for today. That was enough to be worth getting through another week, just as it always had been.

October 03, 2020 03:23

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128 comments

Amanda Meireles
16:29 Oct 07, 2020

I love it so much that I don't even know how to describe. =)

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Zilla Babbitt
20:25 Oct 09, 2020

What a perfect story. A funeral is an ideal way to tell the backstory but you resisted and shared just enough. I could almost smell the bread baking, and now I want some. Congrats on your third win! Completely deserved.

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Carla Ward
17:29 Oct 09, 2020

You should have warned me of the strength of the internet onions you were slicing. My eyes are all watery.

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Julie Bissell
14:47 Oct 09, 2020

My word. This is superb. My own father's funeral came back to me in a rush as I read this. You have this experience nailed. Sitting here in quiet tears.

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01:32 Oct 10, 2020

Wow! CONGRATS ON BEING THE FIRST PERSON TO WIN THREE TIMES! You deserve it :)

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An amazing story! Great work!

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Philip Clayberg
15:12 Oct 09, 2020

Your story was wonderful, it was heartfelt, it was honest. Thank you very much or writing it. It reminds me of funerals I've been to over the years, and that despite all the tears and feeling of loss, life goes on. Like the beauty, scents, and wonder of Spring after the seemingly endless coldness of Winter. But there isn't any fear of forgetting the happiness that happened in the past, because those moments are always with us. Just as those we have known and loved are always somewhere nearby in spirit, ready to comfort us in our times...

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Rambling Beth
20:15 Oct 09, 2020

Congratulations on the win! This was such a wonderful story. Heartbreaking and poignant. I just loved it.

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Sapphire 🌼
18:33 Oct 12, 2020

Congratulations on winning! This was an amazing story and your idea of the funeral was superb!

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Prachi Kumbhare
15:04 Oct 09, 2020

woah! That was so creatively connected with the prompt. I liked it alot.... You covered almost every human emotion in it. Amazing job Phoebe! Congratulations!! (I only said your name cuz I am a hugee F.r.i.e.n.d.s Sitcom FAN! And Phoebe rocks.... No offence :p)

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Scout Tahoe
04:15 Oct 03, 2020

Maybe it was because I ate olive bread earlier today, but while I was reading this I understood Jack’s emotions and could practically smell the fresh bread. “Like maybe this was all a set stage, flat as cardboard, and I was moving through a world that didn’t breathe.” For some reason this line stood out to me. It rings true because this world nowadays can’t breathe because it’s covered by a mask. Anyways, great story as usual, and I’m so glad you’re posting again. This one fit the prompt perfectly and the way you describe the funeral is ...

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15:35 Oct 16, 2020

This is so wonderful it actually made me cry! Congratulations on your win and I hope to read more of your beautiful works!

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Shanu Maheshwari
09:17 Oct 16, 2020

It's beautiful...

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Vanessa Carlson
03:51 Oct 16, 2020

wonderful! as a Californian who spent many years in Pennsylvania, I found myself going back there through your story. and isn't it amazing how something like olive bread can mean so much?

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Suhi Rohin
05:13 Oct 10, 2020

This was the first time I cried reading something on Reedsy. Your craft is amazing...you accomplished the very thing that writers strive to do. Thank you for the story.

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23:16 Oct 13, 2020

heres a tissue

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Writer Maniac
02:48 Oct 10, 2020

Woah!!! That really moved me, I don't know what to say. I love how wonderfully you write your setting, it really makes us feel like we are there too. I just have one question: Is his name John or Jack? Or is John his actual name and Jack his nickname? Overall, a very well-deserved win!!!

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Niveeidha Palani
00:47 Oct 10, 2020

Hi Phoebe! I thought I'd go and check out the winning story, and this definitely deserved a win! Wow, a win three times? You must keep writing, your readers will struggle to pull out the tissues! ;)

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Lina Oz
14:23 Oct 09, 2020

Congrats on the win!

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Ray Dyer
00:54 Oct 07, 2020

There is such an outpouring of emotion in this story, and yet the desperation to contain it is palpable. There have been a few stories I've encountered on Reedsy that just wouldn't let me stop reading once I started, and this is one of them. Thank you for sharing this! I also have to say, as a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania, you have absolutely nailed your description of this state. My very brief experience with California tells me you nailed the other side of the country, too, but you brought crystal clear images of Western PA through...

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Light Fury
00:54 Oct 16, 2020

Waaahhhhh i loveeeee thisssssss

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