Before she goes in, we stand together at the curb. “I just want to say thank you for everything,” Grace says. “I wanted to get you a card, but all the ones I looked at sucked. They didn’t say what I wanted.”

“I know what you mean. And I want you to know what a pleasure it’s been to see you and your son. You’ve come a long way, Grace, and I’m so proud of you. As you must be of yourself.”

“Well, I still have a lot of questions, and I guess some of them are pretty dumb. But I’m not the only one who has questions. And there’s lots of places I can go for answers, lots of people who are ready to help me. My mom, she can’t do it. I guess it’s because she’s had a pretty hard life and she just …” She shrugs. “Whatever. But I’m ready to do the stuff I have to. I think I’m the best one to take care of Kurt, and I think he’ll be all right. Actually, I know he will be. I can feel it, I’m his mom.” She hoists him up on her shoulder, gently kisses his head, then looks at me. “Okay, so … ’Bye, Myra.” She starts up the walk.

“Grace?”

She turns back, squints in the sun. “Yeah?”

“You can still call me, any time you want.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Good luck.”

She nods. Then she puts down the car seat, waves Kurt’s little hand at me. “Say ’bye,’” she says. And then, shyly. “He says to say he loves you.”

“Well, you tell him that I love him, too.” We stand there, both of us smiling, and then she turns around again and disappears into the building.

“Treat her right, “I say, to nobody. To everyone.

Chapter 16

Murray Schwartz came home from the hospital yesterday, and the doctor asked me to visit today to make sure the new regime for medication is being followed correctly. Murray is sleeping when I arrive, and Ethel brings me into the kitchen to show me how she’s divided all the pills in the Medi-minder. She’s made a couple of minor errors, and I help her correct them. “Do you understand everything now?” I ask, and she shrugs.

“Anything you want me to go over?”

“Yeah. You could go over how to put up with a man who’s draining the lifeblood out of me.” She puts the flame on under the teapot. “He’s got demands that could put a woman half my age in her grave.”

“Would you like me to see if I could get a home health aide in to help you?”

“Oh, no. No. I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“I’d be happy to.”