Summary

“What the Cystoscope Said” is a short story published in 1954 by Anatole Broyard. It is a fictionalized recounting of his father’s death.

When Anatole Broyard first saw the horse collar, or neck brace, around his father’s neck he knew that it was the beginning of the end. Though he, his mother, and his father alike all attributed the patriarch’s stiff neck to a strain or a cold they all silently knew it was something more.

Although he was a superintendent, Broyard's father always insisted on carrying a box of his own tools everywhere he went. Worried about his tools, he insisted on stopping by the job site to get the box. Broyard, for the first time held the toolbox for his dad and realized how incredibly heavy it was; he almost collapsed trying to carry it...