In death's agony, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite
chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs.
He gathered
his remaining strength,
and
lifted himself from the bed.
Leaning against the
wall, he slowly made
his
way out of the bedroom and with even greater effort
forced himself down
the
stairs, gripping the railing with both hands.
With
labored breath, he
leaned
against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen.
Were it not for death's agony, he would have
thought himself already in
heaven; there, spread out upon newspapers on the
kitchen table were
literally
hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies.
Was it heaven? Or was
it
one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife,
seeing to it that he
left
this world a happy man?
Mustering one great final effort, he threw
himself toward the table,
landing on his knees in a rumpled posture.
His
parched lips parted, the
wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth, seemingly bringing
him
back to life.
The aged and withered hand shakingly
made its way to a
cookie
at the edge of the table, when it was suddenly
smacked with a spatula by
his
wife.
Stay out of those," she said, "they are for
the funeral."
© 1997 granny@hockinghills.net