“Hello, baby.” Annie squatted and rubbed Raven’s ears. The soft, silky triangles were bright pink against her black fur, and Raven preferred having them rubbed more than her belly. “Did you miss me tonight? Are you hungry?” A quick check of the food bowl let her know that not only did Raven eat all her kibble, but she had used her bowl as a hockey puck on the kitchen floor, her way of demanding more. Annie opened a can of wet food and scooped half into Raven’s dish. “We’re celebrating. Tonight was a good night.” Raven meowed her approval and rubbed against Annie’s legs, ready to devour the seafood pâté once it was in her bowl. Annie changed into her pajamas, spent a few minutes on her nightly routine of brushing her teeth, exfoliating her face with a new sugar scrub her sister had recommended, and applying a new leave-in conditioner that promised to tame her curls overnight. She scoffed at the guarantee on the box but followed the directions just in case it worked. It was almost one in the morning. She crawled under the covers and pulled up her YouTube channel. The comments were mostly positive, but one or two people always had cruel words about talent or about the LGBTQ community. She quickly deleted the hateful posts in case anybody who was onstage tonight was doing the same thing she was. She couldn’t control the like or dislike feature, but she could eliminate the rude words. It amazed her that people wanted to get noticed, even if it was at the expense of others. After doing a first run-through of cleanups, Annie closed her laptop, tossed a mouse toy around for Raven, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

“Hello, everyone.” Annie peeked into the children’s chemotherapy room and waved at the tiny faces that lit up when they saw her. Annie had made her musical visits weekly. She also made it a point to play for any child who spent their birthday at the hospital, which, sadly, was a lot. The kids loved it, and since her sister was in charge, she let Annie play whenever she could fit it into her schedule.

Peyton yelled when she walked in the room. “Auntie Annie!” She waved her arms frantically, as though Annie wouldn’t notice her fifteen feet away.

“Good morning, big girl. How are you feeling?” Annie gave Peyton a tight hug and would have kissed her on her head if she wasn’t wearing a mask. Since their immune systems were compromised, Annie wore blue tear-away coveralls and a see-through mask. She could still sing fine with it, and the children could see her mouth.

“Okay.”