They smiled so. Even Dad. He tried imbuing one firm handshake with a hug’s velocity. I, overbold from swashbuckling hospital emotions, moved to embrace him. He waddled backward, nearly fell against the car. In his cool blue eyes, I saw a man who’d just escaped a sexual assault.

Muzak now offers us carols; I’ve lost sight of him. Dad drove us direct to this mall. Dad said I had to see the new Bloomingdale’s that, he swore, “is way better than your one up in New York.”

“Aha,” said the backseat diplomat.

Soon it’ll be Christmas. I do hope we find the Buick first.

I’d planned this trip as an escape from disability. —Working with a disease so wicked gives you a false sense that everything not It is easy.

They are shrinking, my parents. Odd but my own love for them seems to roar suddenly open—the mouth of the MGM lion—just as they go whittling kittenish into air. The more I see Robert turn ancient so damn fast, the more I long to keep these veterans here in health.

They still look luxuriously pink and silver.

Poor Dad—way out there—hoists his remote device. To reassure us?

These days, Mom risks more. Only to save face for him, of course. But how competent, dry, and witty this woman has suddenly finally become—she who agreed, at age nineteen, to use the leading lady’s energy in a supporting role.

“Mom? I’m gonna chance sounding tactless here. We, uh, both do know where the Buick is, right? I mean, we’ve been sitting here going on what? Three hours? Maybe I’ve grown pushy from my years in overdrive in New York, and maybe I’m not respecting the terms of your agreement, yours and his … whatever. But how about I barge out there and lead him to it? Tactless, right? The car is on the other side of this place. True, he’s getting ‘warmer,’ but that asphalt’s heat might kill him first. Our car is due east, Mom. Dad’s due west.” I sing along with one carol, “‘We Three Kings DisOrient Are.’”

“On that, you’ll hear no argument from me. But, honey, you know how he gets. And, during your first visit in a whole year, how would that be for his self-esteem? You come and then you leave. I have to live with him. He’ll find it eventually, trial and error. Patience. That’s become my full-time job. Why, just last week …” And she wraps arms around herself, leans forward, shifting from the sight of him.