I guess I thought it was just a device. To get us started. Go ahead.

Antique phrase.

Go ahead?

Yes. Have you ever lost a patient to suicide?

Yes. Once.

A young woman.

Yes.

Did you attend the funeral?

Odd question. Yes. I did.

How did that go?

About like you’d expect. Or worse. No one would speak to me.

Did you think they would?

I hoped they would. I was just trying to do what I thought was right. I could see it their way. An unpleasant figure lurking in the corner. An unwelcome guest. I’d never seen people so ruined by grief. You become accustomed to people’s gratitude. You take it for granted. Thank you Doctor. You dont think about it. But blame is deep and abiding. I stood around in my black suit for a while and then I left. Is it still your turn?

Did you ever consider some other life? Some other place?

I guess some other life would have to be some other place. I dont know. Maybe not. Another life? Some other career?

Or no life.

That would be you, not me.

You’re pretty happy.

I’m pretty happy.

When I was a child I used to daydream about living in some faraway place. I was always plotting how to get there.

An imaginary place or a real one?

I think you start with the imaginary. Later you get serious and you dig out the atlas.

Where did you wind up?

Here.

You didnt find Stella Maris in the atlas.

I know. It was Romania.

Romania.

Yes.

Why?

It’s where my family was from. My mother’s family. Bobby researched it. The woman who landed at Ellis Island in 1848 was fifteen. She’d left Europe with her mother but her mother never arrived. She wasnt on the debarkation list. There was no explanation on the manifest but she had to have died at sea. Did this girl have anyone to meet her? I dont know.

How did she wind up in Tennessee? Or did she?

I dont know that either. She seems to have been married by the time she was sixteen. Bobby tried to find out about her family in Europe. Our family. There wasnt much. The Europe she fled was pledged to endless war. There were Jewish families that walked across Asia to ports on the Russian coast. Carrying their suitcases. When Bobby told Uncle Royal that we were Jews Uncle Royal ordered him out of the house.

Did he go?

No. Of course not.

This is the nutty uncle.

Yes.

He’s an Anti-Semite.

Anti-Semitism is the least of his problems.

Is that a family name? Royal?

No. We just have weird names in the south. Could have been Raoul originally. I know. Royal is a legitimate name. And of course you get a lot of Spanish names. In Tennessee anyway. Carlos. Wanita. With a W.

Where did they come from?

They were brought back from the Mexican War. Along with hot tamales. He climbed into bed with me one night.