TE21 Serbian Moments

Nikola Tutek

The Widower

that?”

an experienced old cat, felt that, and, in comfort, she licked the cream off Egan’s finger. Egan stood up, took her off the chair and placed her on the table, as carefully as he would a porcelain doll.

Jessie stood up and walked towards the refrigerator. She bent down and took out the remains of a cake. She brought it to the table on a plastic tray.

“It’s been a long time,” Egan said later, “Thank you.”

“Want some?”

“You’re a sweet man, Egan. Do you want more tea?’

“Yes, sure. I rarely get to eat cakes after my wife died,” said Egan and readily took a piece.

‘Yes, please. My mouth got dry from all this commotion.’

“I never saw you in the Barn.”

He remained shortly at Jessie’s. They finished up the cake and afterwards Jessie walked Egan to the metal door of her garden. “After Meno’s death, Toots drowned himself in alcohol. The Barn caught fire, it all went to hell. I was lucky to have found Bob, the florist. He knew. He knew everything. But he gave me a new start, a new life. God took him too early.” In the evening Egan made scrambled eggs. He put two cups of coffee on the table. First, he hesitated to talk but then he looked at the other coffee cup. “ImetupwithJessiethefloristtoday. Igaveheragoodpounding,” he said and puckered his lips.

“That never interested me.”

“How come?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, I had quite a versatile sexual life at home with my wife. Kate was really, well, competent.” “So, it’s not only the cakes you miss, right,” said Jessie smiling and stretching her hands over the table. Egan reached for another piece of cake and the tips of their fingers met almost accidentally over dwindling pastry. Egan took her hand into his palm in comfort. Still, he could not deny that Jessie’s story about being broken in at the age of sixteen, even with Meno in that picture, started certain processes in his body that were almost dormant ever since Kate died. Jessie,

There was silence.

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