Читать книгу The Apotheosis - Darrell Lee - Страница 16

The sun hadn’t come up yet on that Sunday morning. I sat in the dark living room watching the news. It had been a long night. Uncle Robert was getting worse. Aunt Cathy was with him all night. She came in the room, sat down beside me, and laid her head on my shoulder.

“His last coherent sentence was about you,” Cathy said.

“What did he say?”

“He wanted to know when you were coming home again. I think he could feel his mind slipping away and wanted to see you one last time.”

I patted Cathy’s hand. Neither of us spoke, content to let the drone of the television fill the void. The news program came back from commercial. “In international news, Cuba’s dictator Raul Castro died yesterday from what government news sources say was natural causes. He came to power in 2008 when his brother Fidel Castro became ill. Over the last fifteen years, Raul has ruled the country in much the same way as his older brother, even after Fidel Castro’s death in 2016. Many within the U.S. government had hoped for progress in Cuba on the human rights front and progress toward democracy, but little has changed since 1959. News of his death, as with Fidel’s, has resulted in spontaneous street celebrations in Miami among exiled Cubans there.” The screen showed people in the streets of Miami waving the Cuban and American flags. “Now, with the death of Raul, hope is higher in both the U.S. government and in underground democratic organizations inside Cuba that a democratic government will come to power. Raul Castro was ninety years old.”

I turned the volume down with the remote.

“The world is changing,” Cathy said. “You know Robert knew you were doing your research at the company, like your dad. That made him very proud.”

“Mrs. Edward!” called the nurse from the doorway of the bedroom. We rushed into the room to see Uncle Robert motionless on the bed, the heart monitor bedside the bed showing a straight line and solid tone. “I was just in the bathroom for a minute,” the nurse explained.

“It’s okay,” Cathy said.

I walked over and turned off the monitor. Aunt Cathy began to sob. The world certainly was changing, and I would do my best to make it change the way I wanted.