“This is crazy,” she said. “I need to calm down and leave this unpacking for later. What I could use is a good hot cup of tea out on the porch.”

Hannah rose. “I’ll make it.”

“You said you were tired and needed to lie down.”

“Yes, but I can do this, and I’ll rest sitting with you on the porch. You sit for a minute now and take a deep breath.”

Hannah filled the kettle and turned on the stove, then took two cups and saucers from a shelf above the counter, and the tea canister. When the tea was ready, Grace carried the tray out onto the porch, and they settled into rocking chairs. Hannah raised her leg and placed it on a small stool with a cushion that Grace brought outside.

“Don’t rock, now, or you’ll drag your leg off and hit the floor.” Grace sipped her tea. “This is good. I really needed this.” She began to hum, then stopped. “I wonder, is it the tea itself, or taking time out to relax, that makes me feel so much better? Do you remember a commercial about tea, Hannah? I remember a line or two of it.” She sang, “Take tea and see what a difference. Take tea and see. What brand was that, anyway?”

“I don’t recall hearing it, but then, we drank coffee in my house.”

“It seems to me that the older I get, the harder it is to stay calm in the face of stress. Why do you think that is?”

“A doctor I went to after Dan’s death told me that over time the system in our body that handles stress, the adrenaline system I think he said, loses its ability to return the body to a relaxed condition after we become upset. That day when I heard what Zachary did to his father, how he spoke to Max, I was furious. It took me forever to stop feeling agitated.”

“Maybe you and I ought to sign up for yoga or a meditation class, so we can learn how not to get upset in the first place, especially about things over which we have no control,” Grace said.

“Lord, but I couldn’t get this body into those yoga positions I’ve seen on television.” Hannah laughed.

“They have yoga classes for seniors. The movements are easy and simple. Would you go with me if I found one?” Grace asked. “I could really use something to loosen me up and give me a tool to help when I get upset. Today in that traffic, for example, I could feel my blood pressure shooting sky high, and I kept worrying about you being alone in the house, and here you were just fine, helping Tyler make a kite.”

“If you had the cell phone Russell gave you, you could have called me,” Hannah said.