Telephone Game

 

Wondering whether the title should be ‘heard it through the grapevine’ or ‘telephone game.’ Guess I will go with ‘telephone game.’

It all happened a couple of Fridays ago. When I checked my messages, there was one stating the sad news about the passing of a cousin´s husband. The message read: he died on the treadmill, however, treadmill in Portuguese is ‘esteria’. It is used for other things too, but in this case, everyone thought it was a treadmill at the gym.

On the way to the wake, the family started talking about using this fact the next time the doctor said we had to exercise. Imagine going to the doctor´s and saying ‘my cousin passed while he was on a treadmill. Don´t want to die, so I will not do it.’ All of this was to make the situation lighter for everyone was incredibly sad.

At the calling, the cousin who had received the message of the death and passed it on to everyone else clarified the situation. It just so happened that the deceased worked in a factory that had a conveyor belt (also ‘esteira’ in Portuguese). You can probably guess by now where he really died. At work, not exercising. Nonetheless, what a dreadful event.

Written: February 18, 2025

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