“Are you playing Ping-Pong with me?” Helen laughed. She often referred to their verbal spats as Ping-Pong.

“I just want to know if we’re going to Florida.”

“Is it cold at night in Palm Beach?” Helen asked. “Because I don’t have any of those light knits. But I do have the pashmina shawl I got for nothing in Chinatown. They cost a fortune at Bendel’s. I can wear that with my yellow mohair pantsuit.”

“I have the same exact pink ostrich flats in my closet,” Helen commented to Frankie while inspecting the Giorgio window in The Breakers lobby. “I got them at the Concord years ago when I was there for my niece’s bat mitzvah. At the time it was a very exclusive hotel and that’s where my sister became such good friends with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé.”

“Oh.” Frankie nodded as if this were new information from the Helen canon. In fact, Helen mentioned her sister’s friendship with the singers of “Cheek to Cheek” whenever possible.

Helen opened the lobby door into the shop. “I always said to Natalie, if you keep your things nicely they’ll always come back in fashion, but if you throw them around like garbage they will become garbage.”

Frankie was caught off guard by the mention of Natalie, Helen’s daughter who hadn’t spoken to her mother in over thirty years. She was ten years older than Frankie and already out of the house when Abraham and Helen married. Supposedly, she dropped out of Cornell to join a commune in Geneva, New York. Over the years it was rumored she had evolved into a New Age pig farmer.

“What’s the matter?” Helen asked Frankie as she slipped on a size 6 Clementine display shoe.

“Nothing, I’m just having a nice time. I’m so glad we’re here,” Frankie answered truthfully. She had managed to convince Helen to let her hire a nurse for Abraham who was recommended by the hotel. A large and very sunny southern blonde woman called Miss Gee, short apparently for Gee Gee, had appeared at their suite an hour ago. Frankie was hoping that Miss Gee would be such a resounding success that she could persuade Helen to hire a regular nurse in New York, too.

“I don’t think I really need anything.” Helen looked up at the saleswoman after having tried on at least twenty pairs of flats. “Do you need anything, Frankie?”

“No thanks, I’m fine.”

“Let’s go upstairs and check on your father. I’m sure he’s missing me,” Helen confided to the tired saleswoman. “I can’t even go to the bathroom anymore without him missing me.”

When Helen opened the door to the suite Abraham was sitting on the couch watching the local Palm Beach news. Miss Gee had seen to it that he was bathed, shaven, and wearing the Breakers insignia terry cloth robe. Abraham was grinning while Miss Gee stroked his hair.

“I think they’re having sex!” Helen whispered to Frankie.

“Helen, they’re not having sex!” Frankie wasn’t certain whether to take her seriously. What she did know, however, was that her father hadn’t looked so good in months. He had the pampered glow of a patriarchal Rockefeller with his faithful nurse. He was radiant, though he didn’t say a word.