The Summer You Went Through the Change - 1996

By Shoshauna Shy

When you call to talk to your daughter Elsa, you find out that your children are having lasagna together because David answers the phone and Rick is shouting in the background. The way Elsa pretends she's not there for a moment makes you try to laugh along, (God, could they be drunk?) but how awkward to forget why you were calling in the first place! Apparently, this is not unusual - your children having dinner together. It must be what they often do - have been doing - in their college town with its coffee houses where students play Chess first thing in the morning, go to rowing regattas, toss their coins into the hats of musicians set on sidewalks. All the hubbub they've described makes your throat dry with panic. You won't even let yourself imagine Elsa asleep in her dirty apartment at its six-street intersection that trucks and buses clot all hours of the day and night. She belongs where the pine trees hug gables, and sunlight stripes the grass - not where it bounces off chrome.

Except Elsa has always had to do things her way, and drag her brothers along with her. She probably substituted spinach for meat in their lasagna too, ignoring the importance of proper proteins. Who brought the wine, made the salad? You almost ask but Elsa sounds rushed and distracted. Still, it's imperative that you keep her on the line so you can make-believe you aren't three hours apart with endless ribbons of roadway separating them from this drafty house they raced out of soon as they got through Immaculate Mary High and could read a road map.

Elsa has to go now, make the garlic bread, she says. Too late you wonder if she knows about those pre-baked lasagna noodles at the grocery store that cut preparation time in half. You dial her back - only this time she doesn’t pick up. You take a seat on the settee beside the grandfather clock, and settle in to enjoy yourself. Enjoy the repetitive purr inside the receiver. How soothing it is to hear the phone ring and ring in Elsa’s bustling kitchen, and know this is a sound your children are listening to at the very same time.

THE END

Author Bio: Author of five collections of poetry, Shoshauna Shy's flash fiction won a page in the Best Microfiction 2021 series by Pelekinesis Press this year, and she was also one of the seven finalists for the 2021 Fish Flash Fiction Prize out of County Cork, Ireland.