#71 Where Have You Been?

Gillie hadn’t seen his brother in 30 years.  He wasn’t sure when and where their paths uncrossed, but occasionally he pondered it. Likewise, Ike thought about his older brother Gil upon occasion. Particularly, on the bigger holidays like Passover and Rosh Hashanah. Otherwise, one way or another, he occasionally crossed his mind. Neither brother ever lost an ounce of sleep over this.

Gilllie’s son, Jon, periodically asked about Ike.

“Dad, what happened with Uncle Ike?”

Gil would sigh and swat the question away like an annoying mosquito.

“Seriously dad, what happened?”

Gillie would close his eyes conveying an answer to Jon. There they would sit and Jon would wait. They would sit and wait. Jon imagined that his father was waiting for him to go away and stop asking. Gil would imagine that Jon would eventually stop asking and get the message, once and for all, that he would not produce an answer for his son.

And that would be that.

Likewise, Ike’s son David would ask about Uncle Gillie.

The interaction went exactly like Gillie and Jon’s. In fact, it was identical.

In this day and age it was easy enough for the cousins to be in contact through the internet. They never met and googled each other to find out as much information as they possibly could about each other.  Each went to their respective therapists and did some deep exploration about this family conundrum . All they had at their disposal were fantasies and hypotheses about what pulled the brothers apart. Every other normal enough family had even the basic connections. Even if they hated each other underneath, they still showed up for a Bar Mitzvah or bris. No one would be the wiser or even care if there were deep seeds of hatred planted in the garden of their family history.  What is underground stays underground until it grows and unfolds above the dirt, perhaps, for anyone to notice if they looked or cared.

Years passed and Gil died. Jon and his mother had a simple memorial and several friends attended. Gillie was kind and affable, liked by many. Jon wasn’t sure if Ike was still living. He toyed with the idea of contacting his cousin David. Surely he would be receptive to connection. Or would he?

Likewise, David wondered about aging Gillie and wondered if Jon would accept or embrace an overture to connect. He was ambivalent.

One day Jon was on the uptown 6 train and he looked across several seats and saw a familiar profile: his father’s. Just then, David turned his head and their eyes met.