Whalefall

by Daniel Kraus

“Jay. Baby. Your dad’s got cancer.” The first thing Jay feels is offended by Mom’s quavering tone, her obvious expectation that Jay will break down and rush home, everything that happened between him and his dad forgotten. As if contracting cancer is a deed so selfless it erases everything past.

This. Same when my mom got throat cancer and the family expected me to drop everything. She smoked for all my life, I begged her not to as a child. She chose cancer.

“Not sure I’d call my family captivity.”

Jay feels decapitated.

What does this even mean, lol

He barges past them. He accidentally elbows his mom in the breast.

Why is this even in here? Why is this detail needed to tell a story? It seems childish to me