The White Room

The old man sat alone in his apartment, sunlight streaming beneath a barely raised curtain. A thin layer of dust rested on a small rug, slightly askew, and a stack of newspapers sat unread on a small table. He stared at a dark television set, too complicated for him to turn on, and waited...for something.

In the refrigerator were four cans of soda. He had purchased them that morning for some reason that now escaped him. As the sun moved lower in the sky, his apartment got brighter. Every now and then there was a ringing in the distance, often followed by strange but familiar voices. Nothing moved him until a buzzing at the door.

He shuffled across the room, opening the door. Outside was a young man, another old man, and a woman. As the woman hugged and kissed him and the two men carried in boxes of food, he recognized them as his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. “I called you before,” said his sister, “Don't you answer your phone?” He mumbled a barely audible reply consisting more of sounds than words, as this somewhat nagging woman walked across the room to some kind of black device with a flashing red light.

When he heard one of his friends speaking through the device, he replied, “Hello! Hello! Hold on...Hold on...” The woman, who was familiar for some reason, sternly told him it was a recording. Who was she? Was it his sister? As other familiar voices played through the box next to his bed in the one room apartment, they told a tale of missed appointments and outings over the last week. At least two of these strange messages sounded a lot like the lady that was in his apartment now.

“JERRY??” cried the final message, “Where are you? It's CHRIS!! It's Thanksgiving, remember? I hope you're not still sleeping; it's about two o'clock!” Her voice got fainter, as if she was speaking to someone else in the distance. “Do you think he's on his way here? I told him we were going there this year...I bet he's on his way here...” She got louder again. “JERRY! I hope you're not on your way HERE! We're bringing food over. I'm going to leave a note on the door in case we miss you. I hope you're still there....”

Had he dreamt these words before? It all gave him a haunting sense of déjà vu. He stood against the wall while the invaders set about a flurry of activity, moving a table and arranging chairs, setting plates and folding napkins. The bossy lady with all the questions was rummaging around in his kitchen, pulling out pots from the boxes the others had carried in and setting them up on his stove. “Oh...” he said, suddenly recognizing his nephew again, “[MCF]y's here! I haven't seen him in so long. Where were ya, Sicily?”

His nephew laughed, reminding him that it had only been a few months since the last family gathering, although it was probably closer to a year. He started a familiar speech about traveling while young enough to appreciate it when the boy told him he had not, in fact, been to Sicily, but he forgot the speech a few words in and trailed off into silence. After some family photos and a prayer of thanks, the quartet enjoyed a nice meal. At one point, that ringing returned. What WAS that? “Jerry!” shouted the strange woman sitting across from him, “That's your PHONE! You have to answer that!”

He shuffled across the room, tentatively lifting the device. It was his old commander, from his army days! They chatted for a bit about a recent reunion he had missed, one of the messages that had been retrieved an hour earlier. When asked how he was spending his holiday, he replied, “My MOM came over, and my brother in law, and my nephew.” Something about that made the nephew laugh, while the woman shot him a glare of rebuke.

“I SAID, ‘would you like any tea?'” The old man looked around bewildered. Outside his window, it was suddenly dark. A football game blared from his television, which he was sitting in front of with another old man. A young man was nodding off on a nearby couch, and a strange woman was shouting in his ear about tea. “No...no...” he muttered quietly. A few minutes later, as he remembered where he was and who they were, he called in to her and asked if there was any more root beer left.

An old man stood alone against the wall of his apartment, his nephew vacuuming a dusty rug while his sister and brother-in-law washed dishes and packed a box. He watched as the young man helped his parents with their coats, and soon the family bid him farewell. An old man peered out the narrow window over his air conditioning unit, watching the family load the trunk of their car, and drive off into the night. Soon they were gone, and all that remained was the small apartment in the senior citizen complex. He returned to his couch, and stared at the darkened television set. Was today a holiday? Was he expecting company? He thought maybe he should go to the supermarket and get some soda, and wondered why it was so dark outside the white room....