The expected phone call
came as Paul Lerner was finishing his lunch. It was from his cousin Kings
wife Esther. King had passed away overnight. It was peaceful.
They talked for a few more minutes, Paul asked her to keep in touch and that
was it. Paul had been having his lunch on the patio. He picked up his things
and brought them back into the kitchen. He told his wife Sally about the call.
She asked him if he was alright. He said he was fine.
The shock had been the day
before when Paul had called King but instead of King answering it had been
Esther. King was in the hospital. Hed had a bad fall and was not expected
to last the night. Paul couldnt believe it. King had had a stroke about a
year ago but had been recovering. Paul wanted to know what kind of fall. How
had it happened? Esther was vague on the details; shed
always been vague. When they ended the call Paul was enraged. This
couldnt be happening. He was 85 years old. King was six months older.
They were supposed to go tottering off into old age together.
Paul was a New Yorker,
although hed moved to California almost 55 years ago. Hed always
been a New Yorker. Hed grown up in the Bronx. King and his family lived
in Brooklyn. They had a house, the only one in the family who had. Kings
father, Pauls Uncle Ben, had been a lawyer. King was not only Pauls
cousin but his oldest friend. Paul had a snapshot of the two of them, about
three years old, taken at Brighton Beach. King had been the only one left who
knew Paul had been a pretty good handball player when they were kids.
Theyd been playing at a court in Brooklyn when Paul had dislocated his
knee and so would never be a money player.
King was the one that Paul
could talk to about anything, even though King was a strictly observant Jew and
Paul certainly wasnt.. King was the only one who knew how Paul had felt
when hed lost his job. King was the only one who knew how troubled Paul
was when one of Pauls teenage sons had gotten into trouble. King was the
only one who knew about Pauls fears when Paul had his surgeries. King had
been the only one who knew what growing old and then very old had been like.
King had been the only one hed talked about death with. And now King was
gone. A part of himself was also gone.
Paul went back to the
patio. It was appropriately enough a gloomy day, typical of winter weather in
Northern California when it was either rainy or foggy. Paul had taken a book
with him. It was one of the Rabbi Small series. It reminded Paul of how he and
King had talked about Kings faith and Pauls lack of faith. Paul
read for intervals, looked out at the bleak winter scene at times and
occasionally cried.