Writers and Lovers

Casey serves lunch to two internists from Massachusetts General Hospital. Casey waits until their last coffees to summon the courage to ask them about her mother. She tells them the story of her mother’s death: Her mother was 58 years old and in good health, with only a cold before she boarded two planes to Chile. She traveled around with her friends then simply died. Although there was no heart attack, the official death certificate reads “cardiac arrest.” Casey can see how uncomfortable the doctors are, but she desperately wants answers. The doctors tell her that without her mother’s medical chart they can’t tell her, but that their best guess is that an embolism was the cause of death. Casey thinks about Janet, her mother’s friend who was with her the day she died, and about her mother’s suitcase which was returned to her and Caleb. Neither provided any answers.

Casey faces writer’s block again. She tries to motivate her mind but can’t find the purpose in her novel she’s been writing the last six years. To her, the book is 206 pages of nothing she finds meaningful. Casey tries to escape her feelings of dread by focusing on the happy anticipation she feels for her date with