BLOGGER: Why did they cancel?

ROBY: Death in the family.

BLOGGER: A death? Oh no. Who died?

ROBY: One of the sons.

BLOGGER: One of the sons? One of Jacob’s sons?

ROBY: That’s what the message said.

BLOGGER: One of Jacob’s sons?

ROBY: Yes.

BLOGGER: Who called? Which one died? And how? When?

ROBY: I’ll grab the notes; I wrote down what he said and I’d rather read them than try to remember. Just a sec.

(Silence.)

ROBY: It was Reuben who called. Reuben.

BLOGGER: He’s the eldest. And?

ROBY: Reuben said, “We found Joseph’s coat in the field when we were on our way home.”

BLOGGER: Joseph! Oh no! Poor Joseph!

ROBY: “It was covered in blood.”

BLOGGER: Oh no!

ROBY: The father’s really upset. “My father is out of his mind with grief” — that’s how he put it.

BLOGGER: Of course!

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: Nothing else?

ROBY: No. That’s everything. Do you want to listen to the message yourself?

BLOGGER: I probably should. I’ll listen to it later, and I should call them to offer my condolences. What time did the message come in?

ROBY: 4:55 this morning.

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: I just don’t know what to think.

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: So I guess that’s the last time I’ll ever see Joseph. Seemed like a really nice guy. Do you remember seeing him?

ROBY: There were so many of them. I didn’t really notice any one of them in particular.

BLOGGER: He was the one wearing that coat, kind of colourful, with a bunch of trim.

ROBY: Oh! Yes, I remember the coat! That was Joseph?

BLOGGER: Yeah.

ROBY: He looked like one of the younger ones?

BLOGGER: Yeah. He was the second-youngest one, but I don’t know how old.

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: Did Reuben say anything else?

ROBY: No, there wasn’t anything else.

BLOGGER: Wow. Can’t believe it.

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: Yeah. Oh boy. Jacob is not going to be okay. He’s going to be so broken. Joseph was his favourite.

ROBY: How do you know? He said?

BLOGGER: Yeah. Everybody knew.

ROBY: Oh. Well, yes, if Joseph was his favourite.

BLOGGER: Yeah.

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: It’s going to be like Rachel all over again.

ROBY: Rachel?

BLOGGER: She was the mother of two of his sons, Joseph and Benjamin.

ROBY: Only two? There were so many of them!

BLOGGER: Yeah, there were like four mothers.

ROBY: Four?

BLOGGER: Yeah. Really complicated.

ROBY: Did Rachel pass away?

BLOGGER: Years ago, when Joseph was little. Jacob still hasn’t recovered.

ROBY: Wow.

BLOGGER: Yeah.

ROBY: Would you like me to send flowers?

BLOGGER: I don’t know. I don’t know if that would even make any sense to them, you know? Culturally, I mean. It might just be really confusing: “Why did Blogger just send us this plastic vase filled with white roses? There are no roots even.”

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: I think I should just phone, and find out if they would like me to attend his funeral or whatever they have. How are they going to deal with it though? They don’t have his body, right?

ROBY: Doesn’t sound like it.

BLOGGER: Oh, the whole thing is just so dreadful.

(Silence.)

BLOGGER: You know, it’s just the finality of death. It’s just so — silent.

(Silence.)