Mr. Alvarez was awake and sitting up in a large bed. There was another bed next to him, but it was empty. He was hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV, but he looked comfortable. He was watching a small TV set mounted on the wall.

He turned his head when Zack entered the room, and smiled so brightly Zack thought he might be in danger of tearing up again.

“Zack,” the old man said, “it’s good to see you, son.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Zack murmured, shuffling closer. He was scared to touch anything.

“Did Pilar tell you where to find me?”

“Yeah, and she sent supplies.” Zack handed him the bag.

Mr. Alvarez riffled through it. “That woman is a godsend. Put it over there on that chair for me.”

Zack did so and grabbed a second chair for himself, dragging it to the bedside.

“So,” he asked, “what’s new? Anything exciting happen lately?”

Mr. Alvarez laughed. “Oh, nothing much. The doctors said something about palpitations or some such nonsense. The important thing is, I’m going to be fine.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Zack said. “By the way, I have a surprise for you.”

“More things from home?”

“Even better.” Zack pulled out his phone and brought up the picture of Marilyn. “Here.” He held it out.

Mr. Alvarez stared at it in confusion. Then understanding smoothed his features. “Is that the hospital parking lot?”

“Yup.”

“You drove her here?”

Zack grinned toothily. “Yup.”

“Hot damn!” Mr. Alvarez exclaimed. “That is a surprise. How’d she handle?”

“Like a dream. She runs a bit rough, but that’s nothing a little elbow grease won’t fix.”

They chatted for another half hour, planning the repairs they wanted to make and discussing which nurses Mr. Alvarez liked, before the subject inevitably turned to Zack.

“Don’t you usually work on Sundays?” Mr. Alvarez asked. “I hope you didn’t take a day off just to visit me.”

“I can promise you I didn’t,” Zack said. “I actually quit my job yesterday.”

Mr. Alvarez looked surprised. “That’s a bold move for someone as broke as you. What made you do it?”

Zack shrugged. “What can I say? I got tired of working weekends.”

Mr. Alvarez frowned. “What was it that you did again?”

“It’s not important now,” Zack dodged. “Just know that it was the right decision.”

“It may not seem that way when your rent comes due.”

Zack heaved a sigh. “Yeah, that’s fair. Still, that job was dragging me down. It was really draining, and I didn’t want to get stuck there. I was never going to get motivated to look for something else while I had a steady paycheck.”

“I suppose that’s fair enough. Though if I were you, I wouldn’t have taken that steady paycheck for granted. What are you going to do now?”