The two men were crying.
They heard from him during the first two weeks of his trip and then not until the day before he was supposed to return, when he telephoned early in the morning. Gershwin was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. His father held the receiver to his ear, nodding and not saying very much. Because the call went on for a quite a while, Gershwin assumed that his uncle was describing the places he’d visited in great detail. During one of his father’s longer pauses, Gershwin whispered, “What’s he saying?” But his father’s put a finger on his lips indicating that Gershwin should stop talking. “I have to go to school in five minutes,” Gershwin whispered. His father ignored him, and Gershwin was about to leave the kitchen, when he heard his father say, “What’s wrong
