“Well, Mrs. Jensen, we have to get the doctor’s okay for that. He’s got to sign papers to release you.”

“We’ll see about that,” she said.

The nurse looked at her square in the face and said, “Now, Mrs. Jensen. You gonna be trouble for me? My shift ends at five o’clock. Why don’t you be trouble for the next shift and I’ll bring you all the chocolate pudding you can eat? How ’bout it? Deal?”

My mother, who needed an all-you-can-eat deal like she needed another hole in her head, considered endless chocolate pudding and said sheepishly, “Oh, all right, but only because you asked me so nicely.”

The nurse nodded to another nurse, who hurried along to bring my mother the reward for her bad behavior.

“Now, let’s get your IV back in place,” the nurse said.

Momma held out her hand as though she was offering the nurse an opportunity to kiss the ring of Saint Peter.

The nurse looked at me and said, “She’s something else, your momma is.”

“You’re telling me?” I said.

“You can run along now, Holly,” Momma said. “I’m in good hands here.”

Peace was restored. I went home to call Leslie.

Chapter 4: Now What?

“I’ve got another great bee quote for you,” Archie said. “‘Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.’”

“Hmmm,” I said. “Who said it?”

“Robert Green Ingersoll, known as the Great Agnostic. Born 1833, died in 1899.”

“He was an idiot. Any beekeeper will tell you there’s a God.”

Chapter Four

Now What?

I left Momma in the hospital and was driving back toward the island. She was a funny bird, cutting a deal with the promise of good behavior for the reward of chocolate pudding. But the doctors still had to get to the bottom of her issues. Then I remembered one of the nurses asking her how much exercise she got.

Momma looked at her and proudly said, “None.”

The nurse said, “Well, you know, a little exercise is good for you. If you just sit around all day, your muscles atrophy and your mobility becomes really compromised.”

Someone else suggested she give herself a couple of daily tasks, like going to get the mail, taking out garbage, or picking up the newspaper. “You know, start slowly.”