Alice comes to the cemetery and, lo and behold, she, too, pulls between the gates, going all the way up the drive before stopping. But she doesn’t let him out of the car, even as she gets out and stands in front of one of the stones.

Buddy/Mack does bark, his place short and demanding. Please let me out; please let me wait with you.

Alice pauses only a moment, brushes something from the top of the stone, plucks a dead bloom from the chrysanthemums, shudders, and then gets back into the car. “What’s all your noise about?” She strokes his head, nose to ears, over and over, until Buddy/Mack senses that the unhappiness has ebbed and Alice is ready to move on.

Part 3

Part 3

Chapter 34

34

I never would have pegged Adele as the stay-by-the-bedside type. They’ve assigned my father a bed on a quiet floor, where the only other inhabitants are several doors away from him and one another, as if making it easy on nurses isn’t the plan. At this point, the doctors all seem to agree that he isn’t dead, but comatose, and that he most likely won’t wake up from that, but sink deeper. My stepmother can’t seem to wrap her mind around the ultimate eventuality and acts like this is some sort of television drama where keeping up a constant patter of chat saves the patient. Then again, Adele, as long as I have known her, has kept up a constant patter of chat. I guess it doesn’t matter if the person she’s talking to is unconscious or not. I am uncharitable enough to imagine that my father is sinking faster and deeper just to get away from the persistent sound of her voice.

Any idea that this vigil is based on true affection is ludicrous. Adele is auditioning for the role of martyr. I can hear the ladies at bingo singing her praises: She stayed by his side, la da la da, by his side, by his side, la da, la da. I image it sung as a Strauss waltz.

Adele is so relentless in her vigil that I am stunned when she finally goes out of the room, leaving me alone with my father. We’re both a little squeamish about using the lavatory in the room, so I realize that she’s gone to the public ladies’ room down the end of the hall.