Loitering
- Loitering
Her dead father stays with herfor yearshis ghost does not say much, of courseas a little girl she senses his incredible painas she growsshe learns more about the circumstances of his deathand struggleevaluatingand giving meaning to his sufferingand modest accomplishmentsis her burdenbut he staysas practical a ghost as possibletelling bedtime stories playing games with herwith some practice he even ties shoe-laces and makes braids. Evenwhen he was still alive, these were challenges.Some living fathers do worse. [End Page 42] Eventually, she lets him go.When she is as free from him as possiblethe trauma of his parenthood,not more horrible than most,he lets go of his earthly body, relieved,relieving the world. [End Page 43]
Dror Abend-David is chair of the English program at Ohalo College in Katzrin, and teaches Communication, Translation and Literature at Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. Dror graduated with a Doctorate in Comparative Literature from New York University in 2001. He has published both academic and creative materials, and is now working on a rather convoluted theory of gendered literature. He has a daughter. He can be reached at d.abend.1@alumni.nyu.edu and http://homepages.nyu.edu/~da2137.
