“Well, isn’t that nice.” Mary folded her hands in her lap. “It’s a nice school. I remember when it was an old wood building. The new one’s brick and air-conditioned, too. Lord, back when I was in school, it was sure hot in September, and we didn’t even have ceiling fans. Children today just don’t know how lucky they are, do they?” She stopped. “But I’m going on and on.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, then Mary said, “Nice weather we’ve been having. Spring came early this year, don’t you think?”

“It did indeed,” Grace said. “You have a beautiful garden. Do you also grow roses?”

“Well, indeed I do, Grace. You’re Grace, am I right? I’m sorry. My memory for names isn’t what it used to be. Time was, I could remember everyone’s name at a party.”

Grace nodded. “Same for me. Faces I recall, but can’t put the name to the face sometimes.”

“Last year my roses—they’re out back, where the sun gets them in the morning—they got the blight, and I lost five of my biggest, prettiest bushes. My son-in-law, Hank—you know, from Mars Hill; he’s in hardware—he came last week and took out all the old soil and put me in new soil and planted new roses. He’s good to me, that Hank.”

Hannah cleared her throat. Grace had this small talk down to a science. She, on the other hand, was eager to get the information she’d come for and leave. “When did you have your knee surgery, Mary?”

“About a year and a half ago.” Mary pulled up her skirt and rubbed her bare knee. “I have just the tiniest scar here, see?” She turned her knee, and Hannah leaned forward. The inch long scar was pale and thin, hardly visible.

“And you can do everything you did before?”

Mary considered. “Well, Hannah, tell the truth, maybe not quite everything. They do ache a bit, my knees do, and they do swell some if I get down on them and don’t cushion them, you know what I mean. If I kneel to weed and forget to put this rubber pad I have under them.”

Hannah winced. Half of her life was spent on her knees in her garden at home or in one of the gardens at Bella’s Park. “But otherwise, you get around just fine.”

“Did you need a cane or a walker after surgery?”