Cathedral

On a Saturday afternoon, Ann Weiss orders a cake at the bakery for her son Scotty’s birthday. Ann is struck by the baker’s terseness as she places the order. He isn’t rude but disinterested, as he promises that the cake will be ready on Monday. On the following Monday morning, a car hits Scotty as he walks to school with a friend. The driver speeds away, and Scotty gets up in a daze and walks home. He tells his worried mother what happened and suddenly passes out. An ambulance takes him to the hospital where doctors assure his parents he is in a deep sleep but will be fine when he wakes. That night, as Ann waits by his bedside and her husband, Howard decides to rush home for an hour. Inside, the phone rings, and Howard panics, certain that something happened to his son at the precise moment he decided to leave.

The voice at the other end tells Howard that no one picked up the cake he made. Confused, Howard hangs up on the man. As he takes a bath, the phone rings again, but the caller hangs up when he answers. Howard returns to the hospital and Ann worries that Scotty isn’t awake. Both Howard and the nurse encourage Ann to go home and rest, but Ann wants to wait for the doctor. Dr. Francis examines Scotty and assures his parents again that he is merely in a deep sleep and that his tests show that he will recover. He resists calling the boy’s state a coma. The doctor also suggests that Ann go home and rest, but the doctor’s reassurances do not comfort her. Someone from radiology tells her that Scotty will undergo a brain scan, promising Ann and Howard that this is normal procedure. For the rest of the day, Ann and Howard wait, but Scotty still doesn’t wake up.

In time, Dr Francis finally shows concern that Scotty is not awake. He admits that the boy is in a coma but still promises that Scotty will be all right. Howard encourages Ann to go home and feed the dog. Ann resists but realizes that Howard needs some time alone as well. On her way out, Ann takes a wrong turn into a waiting room where a Black family waits for news about their son’s condition. When the mother begs her for an update, Ann apologizes and tells them that she is only there because her son was hit by a car. The father tells Ann that somebody stabbed their son, Franklin, at a party when a fight had broke out near him. Despite her urge to stay with this family, as they are “in the same kind of waiting she was in” (73), Ann leaves and finds the elevator.

At home, the phone rings. Ann answers immediately and asks the man on the other end if his call is about Scotty. The man replies, “It’s about Scotty, yes. It has to do with Scotty, that problem. Have you forgotten about Scotty?” (74) Ann frantically calls the hospital and tells her husband about the phone call. Howard tells her that Scotty’s condition is unchanged and that the same man called while he was home. The doctor is supposed to return later with something more substantial to tell them. Still terrified, Ann takes a bath quickly, changes her clothes, and returns to the hospital. Franklin’s family is no longer in the waiting room, and Ann learns from a nurse that their son, Franklin, is dead. In Scotty’s room, Howard tells her that Dr. Francis came early with a neurologist. They plan to take Scotty into surgery to determine the cause of his unconsciousness. Suddenly, Scotty opens his eyes. Ann and Howard speak to him, but he doesn’t know who they are. Scotty screams and, moments later, goes limp and dies.

The doctors inform Ann and Howard that Scotty suffered from a hidden occlusion, a highly unlikely injury that they probably could not have repaired even if they had taken him into surgery immediately. Stunned and struck with grief, Dr. Francis apologizes repeatedly. A shocked Ann and Howard go home, crying and comforting each other. The phone rings, and when Ann answers, the man on the other end says, “Your Scotty, I got him ready for you. […] Did you forget him?” (81) Ann calls him evil, and the man hangs up on her. She sobs. Near midnight, the phone rings again but the man hangs up when Howard answers. Ann exclaims that she hates the caller and wishes she could watch him die, which shocks Howard. Suddenly, Ann realizes the identity of the caller. She tells her husband to drive her to the bakery.

Ann and Howard knock on the front door then drive to the back when they don’t receive an answer. The baker comes to the back door and recognizes Ann. He berates her for ordering a cake that sat for three days and is no longer worth anything, adding that he spends 16 hours every day baking and running the shop to make ends meet. Coldly, Ann tells the baker that her son is dead and that they spent three days hoping that he would wake up. As she weeps, the baker invites them inside and asks them to sit. Reluctantly, they do. The baker apologizes profusely, explaining that he spends too much time working and apparently forgot how to treat people with humanity. He begs for their forgiveness and offers them coffee and cinnamon rolls, explaining, “You have to eat and keep going. Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this” (85). Howard and Ann discover they are very hungry. The baker continues to feed them, and they sit and talk until morning.