Star Trek

Today, when I arrived, Dad was discombobulated. “I can’t even remember my name,” he said, distressed. “What’s my name?” “Addison Bray,” I responded, trying not to panic. Dad looked offended. “There’s a fancier name than that,” he said in his best old New England aristocratic tone. I had left out his middle name. “Addison Sergeant Bray,” I corrected and he was satisfied.

I’ve learned that lack of caffeine, food, or water are all things that exaggerate Dad’s memory problems, so I got him seated and brought him a cup of coffee, a yoghurt, and started boiling a couple of eggs. Once he had his snack in front of him, Dad said “of everyone in the United States, you are the best person, the best person, the best person.” Quite high praise for something waitresses do a hundred times a day.

I got Dad started popping bubble wrap again, and he began pondering it. “How do they get the air in it?” he asked. Definitely a question for Google. “Is this a new stunt or have they been doing it a long time?” Another question for Google: when was bubble wrap invented?

A loud siren sounds outside his house, a police car or an ambulance in a big hurry. “That’s the most bitchy of them all,” says Dad, who doesn’t appreciate the noise.

The other day, I was flipping through a notebook that had turned up somewhere in Dad’s apartment. Labeled just “Notes” in contains lines from essays and stories he meant to write, but, most interestingly, a page of ideas for Star Trek episodes!!! This would be less surprising if my Dad were a fan from the 1960s, but, in fact, he only got introduced to Star Trek through me, in 1989, my 9th grade year. Dad would sometimes be hanging around and wind up watching episodes with me or he’d inquire about the book I was reading, which were often Star Trek books. Back then, he was constantly asking me whether they’d done certain things, and apparently this was to see if his ideas were already taken. When I mentioned finding these notes to Kate S., she told me that he’d told her at some point that he wanted to write for Star Trek, news to me.

The only evidence I had that Star Trek had had any impression on him was while he was being tested for his formal Alzheimer’s diagnosis. He emerged from his brain CT scan into the waiting room, and, not knowing exactly where in the room I was, announced loudly enough for the whole room to hear, “That was like Star Trek! I thought I was going to wake up in another universe!”