The meatballs

The meatballs

–Hey, how did you get in here???
–I brought you these sweet bites my owner made yesterday. They are made w…
–“Ana, our cousin is too old. You have to speak loud to hear you.”
–Okay, mom, I will do so…
–“…and she doesn’t know we have bought a bigger house. Don’t mention anything.”
–Yes, dad, I will be careful.
–Where are we goin…?
–Shhhhhh… Are you crazy? Be quiet. You know my dad hates animals in the car. Do you want him to find you and kick you out in the middle of nowhere? We are far from the city…
. . .
I forgot to mention, I could communicate with Ana in my own language… Not that she understood everything. She guessed from my gestures and mood each time. The car was beautiful and spacy. A new one, too. Before I realized it, the door shut, and I found myself trapped in having to endure their whole trip to the nursing home. What a Sunday nightmare…!

The sun was blinding that day, the same one that always comes to my big round cushion on the yellow sofa where I like to sleep… and eat some delicacies at times. I don’t know why, but I am always hungry. Luckily, there is always something to grab from the kitchen counter. My owner is one of those chefs who prepare even the simplest meal, and then the kitchen seems bombarded. That is to my advantage. His food is delicious… It makes me want to eat every single minute. The paradox? When I was a little, he regularly took me to the vets to give me vitamins. He believed I needed something to increase my appetite. He thought I was dying. According to him, I was eating nothing. “Don’t worry,” they were reassuring him. “He won’t die from hunger. If he is hungry, he will eat.” As you understand, I didn’t die…

Our way to the nursing home brought us driving on many congested roads. It was Sunday, after all. Everyone was going out of town. We quickly parked the car and started walking toward the building entrance, an old four-story building with marks of last week’s rain still fresh on its walls. I was following them behind hid in Ana’s backpack along with homemade food her mom had made for their distant cousin. Oh, my! The smell was irresistible. There were eight small meatballs swimming in tomato sauce on top of lasagna that filled a big Tupperware. By the time we reached the room, there were only three meatballs left.

They were welcomed and led to the room they wanted. Quiet made its presence noticeable while we were walking up the stairs. I saw nothing but the expected. Some elders were sitting on a worn-out sofa and talking, while some others had fallen asleep on a chair, either in their room or in the hallway; a real temptation for me to approach and start blowing softly in their face to see their reactions while sleeping.

The young couple stopped in front of a bed that hosted a very old lady. Ana followed closely behind them. Then, …. a cry mixed with desperation and sadness interrupted the silence in the room. It was coming from the bed to the right, not their cousin’s.

–Is she talking to me?
–“How can she talk to a cat?? Are you crazy?” Ana whispered to me, avoiding looking at me to prevent revealing my presence in there. I was still hidden in her backpack that was now placed by her distant relative’s bed.

I was touched to the core. It was one of those moments that you want the earth to swallow you and hide you like a meatball in tomato sauce… because you don’t know what to do, how to react. “My son, she kept calling… my son, come… is that you?”

Lucky enough, I ate tons of my Greek Easter bread later that day. Not enough to make me forget, though… It was not Easter time, but my owner loves that bread like nothing else. How many pounds of it has he consumed? (and along with him myself too?) I’d rather not say. My owner loves drinking a glass of wine after work and enjoying his favorite dishes he brings from the restaurant… A good dessert is never missing. All humans love food, and chefs couldn’t be an exception. He was very excited about the Easter bread that day… as were Ana’s parents, for other reasons. After so long, they saw a distant cousin whom they loved so much (or at least they said they loved…) There had been no one left from the family to take care of her. She lived there among other elders, and she was really happy, unlike the other one in the bed to the right… Her son had thrown her there and didn’t show up for so long. She had missed him immensely. She felt abandoned. Every time visitors went to see their loved ones, she thought it was him. She was blind.

“Are there human beings who throw their parents into nursing homes and then disappear?” I was thinking, staring out the car window… thinking and finishing some lasagna and a meatball I had hidden on the car floor under the driver’s seat. I couldn’t forget them, the lasagna and the old abandoned lady… but that young guy, too, lying on the sidewalk outside Grand Central. We were almost back home… and he was dirty, still like dead. Oh, my!  I instantly thought it was his favorite sleep position, but shortly after, I realized there was a problem. He seemed abandoned too… “Are there human beings who throw their parents into nursing homes and then disappear?” I was still thinking of all that, the lasagna I had just eaten, that abandoned guy, but also that old lady in the nursing home. “Are there human beings who throw their parents into nursing homes and then disappear? Are there parents who ‘throw’ their kids into a troubled world with their neglect and failure as parents?” I am still thinking… Yes, there are… but they definitely deserve to eat no meatballs in the years to come. Lentils will be fine…

PS: This morning, I woke up having that vivid dream on my mind. It seemed so real. I didn’t take my usual trip to the humans world. I sat in the big armchair of my owner staring out the window, my window this time, and thinking… I was so confused with all of which I dreamed. There were meatballs, though, left on my plate in the kitchen’s corner. I was puzzled now even more… I had lost my appetite. I should have been given those vitamins back then… Since that day in the nursing home, I haven’t eaten much. Have you eaten? Should you?