The Wrinkled Wall

He was always working: gone before I woke, not home until evening. He’d arrive at dinnertime, or maybe, dinnertime occurred upon his arrival. We’d sit at the table: my two sisters on one side, my mom and I on the other, and he—my dad—at the head. He didn’t talk much at dinner. The rest of us did. I always felt his silence.

Dinner ended when he slid his chair backward, rose, and headed for the den. My older sisters helped my mom clean up. I was the baby brother—just four or five—and sometimes, I would follow him. Tonight, he sat back in his lounge chair, raised his legs onto the ottoman, and opened the newspaper. Waist up, he was hidden behind it. I lay on the floor beside the ottoman, trying to steal a peek of his face through a space between the bottom of the paper and his pants. But there was no opening—the wrinkled wall spread the width of the chair and seemed to stretch from his pants to the ceiling. I reached my hands around his ankles and pulled myself up onto the ottoman. His socks felt warm. I crawled up his long legs. He didn’t move. I tugged at the base of the wall, but only slightly—I didn’t want to make him mad. Then, I waited. Maybe he needed to finish a sentence, or maybe, a whole paragraph, because sometimes it was only a moment, and sometimes it was longer before he lifted the wall. My cue—we didn’t speak. At the top of his left shoulder, I curled my neck and set my head to rest alongside his. It was warm there, too. He lowered the wall. I was inside now. Up and down I went, as he breathed in and out and continued to read. On his side of the wall, I was happy the paper was so big—it would take him a while to finish. I didn’t dare speak. Up, down, up, down—his massive chest raised and lowered me effortlessly, until it swayed me to sleep.

PETER SPEZIALE

Peter J. Speziale is the CEO of a specialty trade finance company, headquartered in Westchester County, New York. Peter is also an attorney and a passionate short story writer. He recently moved with his wife and son from New York City to Massachusetts, now residing in the town of Marblehead.