Chapters (30)
Diann leaves the room, and I make a few more notes, then close the chart again. I don’t really have to work. I can do this tomorrow. She’s out there watching television in some stranger’s house, wondering if all the plants have died in her apartment where she too lives alone. She came here to try to take care of the man she has always loved, and she’s failing.
I go into the living room, sit on the sofa beside her.
“Oh! Hi!” She wipes quickly under her eyes; she’s been crying. Then she laughs, embarrassed.
“Mind if I watch with you?”
“Not at all. Of course, I’m not really watching.”
“Should I turn it off?”
“No. I just like the sound of voices, talking about something else.”
“Right.”
“Myra, I have to … You know why I got up? I need to do some wash.” She starts crying again. “He pissed the bed.”
“Oh, Diann.”
“I came into your study to tell you, but then I just couldn’t. I don’t know why.”
“Well, this is going to start happening, Diann. Once in a while at first; then more and more frequently. How was he about it?”
“He was … mixed up, mostly. He’d been sound asleep. I felt it right away, and I jumped up and started yanking the sheets off—I saved the mattress, by the way. And he … Well, I told him I’d done it.” She stares at me, starts laughing through her tears. “And he believed me. Told me I shouldn’t drink so much water before I go to bed. I put on another set of sheets and he went right back to sleep.”
“But weren’t his pajamas all wet?”
“Well, he … wasn’t wearing any.”
“Oh. I see.”
She looks away, then back at me. “Myra, I just want to say … I mean, I know you care. For him. And I’m sorry that … Well, I’m just sorry.”
“It’s all right.” I look at the television. Judy Garland. A Star is Born. “This is good. Maybe we should watch this.”
Diann squints at the screen, leans forward. “Oh, I love this movie. The Man Who Got Away.”
“Right.”
We smile at each other, sharing the unfortunate irony. And then I lean back in my chair, sigh deeply. “Oh, God. God.” I stand, stretch. “I’m going to put the sheets in. And then, do you want some popcorn?”
“I’ll do the wash. That part I can do. And then I’m going to get my glasses and then I would love some popcorn.”