Wilma wasn’t hungry, but, after Harry woke her, she dressed herself in a pair of gardening jeans and an old blouse, pinned up her thick silver hair without looking in the mirror, and went downstairs to sit and pick at the eggs and toast he placed before her. He sat across from her, sipping coffee and looking at her so solicitously that she forced down a couple of bites. The coffee in her cup grew cold, the eggs congealed. When Jack and Mary arrived to take JJ home, Wilma went to see them out, and then did not want to look. But she found she couldn’t look away, as Jack carried his sleeping son down the stairs and out the door to the car. It would have been pleasant to watch if it had seemed JJ was a child again. Instead, he seemed old, slumping down toward death; emaciated with it, in fact. The absence of his leg was horrifying. Her eyes fixed on his mouth, hanging open in his stubbled, pinched face as he snored.

“I hope we can still have the birthday party for him tonight,” Mary said, sounding worried.

“Yes, yes,” Wilma said, not believing it.

Harry had packed his suitcase and was going with them, so that Jack could give him a ride to the train; something about that girl Harry had had with him yesterday. She was gone, evidently.

Wilma didn’t ask for details. It was enough that she was to be left alone.

“Will you be all right, Mom? For a little while?” Jack asked. “I have to go down to Wausau and check on Dad. They said we might be able to bring him home today.”

“Yes, yes, fine,” Wilma told him.

“Are you sure, Mom?” Harry said. “I can stay, if you need me.”

“No, no, please,” Wilma said, herding them out onto the back porch. As she watched them getting into Jack’s car, she pressed her icy fingers to her temple to try to cool the heat there, and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she saw a spider, weaving its web on the corner of one of the windowpanes on the back door. She pictured the spider entwining the house in its web entirely, covering it from top to bottom with white, silky threads. Covering all the windows and doors. Outside, a gust of wind loosed several leaves from the big birch tree, and they drifted to the ground.