I WAS A TEENAGER at a convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was lunch time. I was in a dining area. A Witness I knew later in life, David, was there with his family. His teenage daughter was disabled in a wheelchair. I picked her up and began carrying her. We seemed to like each other. Her older sister wasn’t nice to us.
I saw many of my relatives, including my aunty Shirley who I’d fallen out with. We spoke, awkwardly. I remembered that I was disfellowshipped. I ended up back at David’s house. David seemed unimpressed that his daughter liked me. He told me we couldn’t have a relationship.
My dad appeared and announced my (now ex) wife’s grandad had died, except it wasn’t my wife’s grandad, it was someone on my side of the family. Then it was my wife’s grandma. The identity of the dead person kept changing. My dad was trying to arrange the funeral. He decided we should stay at David’s house overnight. David wasn’t impressed. His family left us and went upstairs out of the way while I watched a Tom Hanks war movie.
I was supposed to be spending the next day with my friend, Matthew, so I called him and cancelled. My dad phoned his sister, Shirley, and I spoke with her on the phone telling her everything was okay between us now.
I covered my face with shaving foam and started to shave my beard with a table knife.