The Buffet

The Buffet

Dona looked at her husband, Gary, in disgust. They have been married for almost 25 years and during that time Gary had gained about 50 pounds and he wasn’t a skinny man to begin with. They were on their way to their granddaughter, Chloe’s, fifth birthday party. It was a sweltering July day and Gary sat in the passenger seat with sweat dripping down his massive head. “How many times do I have to ask you not to eat in the car,” Dona asked Gary?

“At least once more,” he replied as he wolfed down a Hostess cupcake, spraying crumbs onto his shirt as he spoke. “Can you turn the air up any higher? I’m sweating like a pig.”

“It’s on as high as it will go. I’m actually starting to get cold. You know if you would just make a little effort to start eating right and exercising a few times a week, you probably would lose a little weight and maybe not sweat so much,” she said with a hopeful voice. Dona tried this ploy every summer on Gary. And every summer he would try for a week or so and give up.

“I eat just fine,” he said as he pulled out a Twinkie.

“You do realize that Tracey cooked a meal for us to share with Chloe.”

“Tracey never cooks enough. I’m always still hungry after we eat dinner over there.”

“Clean the crumbs off your shirt,” Dona said as she pulled the car up Tracey’s long and winding driveway.

Dona could see that the party was in full swing as they entered the sprawling and immaculately landscaped backyard. Chloe and all of her friends were playing on her new trampoline. Gary gave his daughter a quick hello and then headed straight for the buffet table.

“Some things will never change,” Tracey said with a smile as she watched her father pile food onto a plate. They both went inside to talk with some of the other moms of Chloe’s friends. Dona was inside for about ten minutes when she heard a little girl scream. All the moms ran outside, fearing their daughter or son might have fell off the trampoline.

There was a swarm of people around one of the picnic tables. Dona strode over to the table to see what all the commotion was about. Then she saw, in the middle of the tight circle of people lay Gary on the ground. The contents of his plate were scattered around his lifeless and limp body.

“WHAT HAPPENED,” she screamed? “Someone call an ambulance now.”

“I think he might have choked on a piece of food.”

After the ambulance arrived and left, a couple of women were helping get some of the party cleaned up for Tracey when she came home from the hospital. As they cleaned, they spoke of the accident that occurred.

“It was how he would’ve wanted to go.”