The History of Love

Leo waits anxiously for a response after sending Words for Everything to his son. After two and a half weeks without word, he takes a walk. He ends up at a Starbucks, where he orders a coffee without attempting to call attention to himself. Feeling pleased with his ability to have a cup of coffee “like a normal person” (76), Leo settles into his seat, enjoying listening to the conversations around him. However, the man sitting across from him is reading a newspaper, and Leo sees a photograph of his son, Isaac Moritz, on the back page. He reads the obituary and learns that Isaac died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer, at 60 years old.

Leo makes his way home in a daze. The following day, he notices that Isaac’s obituary includes the details for the funeral. He goes out to buy a suit for the service but cannot afford it. Instead, he goes to a shop to have a passport photo taken, something he does occasionally “to steady [him]self” (81). Once, the cousin who helped Leo become a locksmith tried to take Leo’s photograph, but the image always developed as a grey blob, as if Leo wasn’t there.