His mother’s death was abrupt. She was a healthy a woman, strong, hardworking, the type of woman that was paranoid about her health, one who had regular checkups and frequent doctor visits. She jogged every morning and ate the healthiest food. So when one morning Jimmy Kramer found his mother dead in her bed, he was shocked; he couldn’t say a word. His mother had died and he couldn’t say a word. He just stared at her pale face, her dead eyes and sat next to her on the bed.
The funeral was too painful for Jimmy. He was 19 years old, alone and confused. His father was somewhere in England but Jimmy didn’t know where. He and his father didn’t get along because Mr. Kramer was an alcoholic and always screamed and yelled at Jimmy and his mother. When Mr. Kramer took off, he only told them that he was going to England and that he didn’t want to contact them ever again. Jimmy was 10 when his father left. He only remembers that he hated his father for leaving, for drinking, for being the worst father in the world.
Now, Jimmy lives with his Aunt Sally. Aunt Sally is overweight, a brunette, and very tall. She loves Jimmy. She can’t have children because of a birth defect so she treats Jimmy as a real son and sometimes likes to tell her friends that he is her boy, all grown up and smart. She brags about his artistic abilities and his good grades. Jimmy loves her too because she is the only person who watched out for him and his mom when his father left. She was the one who comforted his mother and encouraged her to be strong.
Jimmy rarely talks these days. His girlfriend Rochelle calls him but he doesn’t answer his phone. He just stares at his paintings for hours and forgets to eat. He only draws faces, faces of women, faces of his mother. Mrs. Kramer was beautiful and he hates that he can’t quite make her as beautiful as she was. He hates that he can’t draw her eyes the correct way; her eyes were round and big, blue as the ocean, with long, curly lashes. He hates that what he draws in the end isn’t exactly her. He wishes that the women he draws would talk to him, pat his shoulders, kiss him on his forehead and hold him. He wishes that they would speak to him, tell him that everything was going to be okay. But the faces he draws do not speak, nor do they feel or become alive. They are dead faces, lifeless, corpses. Jimmy stops drawing then. He picks up his phone and tells Rochelle that they have to break up because he can’t think or speak or eat or sleep.
A month after the funeral, Jimmy Kramer grabs Aunt Sally’s gun and shoots himself in the head.