By Komal Keshran
BREAKFAST FOR SUPPER
we have dined together every single day since May the 27th in 2011 and I remember nearly every breakfast lunch dinner and midnight snack we shared but if I had to choose a favourite it would be the time you made us breakfast for supper I remember you saying ‘baby, bear with me’ as you made hash browns and scrambled eggs at 11:00 p.m. on a Monday night in 2014 as the rest of the city slept and I remember howling with laughter as you dropped your phone into the pan trying to take a photo of the pair of yolks that sloshed out of the first egg you cracked and I will never forget how you collapsed onto your knees on the kitchen floor hooting at your carelessness with your laughter bouncing off every wall in our apartment as you wiped away your tears on that old gingham apron your mother gave you with your dark hair ruffled into every direction possible defying gravity as usual and I remember clear as day how your voice then proceeded to say, ‘baby, what are we doing?’ and I countered, ‘taking it as it comes,’ and sat down next to you on the cold cemented flooring of our 22 square-foot kitchen with burnt eggs in the frying pan and golden-brown hash browns on tartan rimmed porcelain plates placed in our laps and I will always remember swaying to Bob Seger while I did the dishes afterward as you scraped the burnt eggs out of the pan and into the trash with sparkles in each of your big brown eyes as you sang and danced because there will never be a better dance routine than the one we had to Night Moves because that song wasn’t really made for dancing but we had some jive between the both of us and we made it work pretty damn well and well today it is January the 4th in 2018 and I am eating supper alone at 12:17 on a Thursday wishing I still had that gingham apron from Maman because I need something to wipe my tears with and you’re not here anymore and if anybody were to ask me ‘baby, what are you doing?’ now I would still say I’m just taking it as it comes.
