He found things like a jar of peanut butter in the bathroom cabinet. The old guy asked the same questions over and over again—What’s your name? Where are you from? Are you here about the plumbing?—until Peach realized that no answer would seat itself in the guy’s head in any meaningful way. How did it feel to forget everything? Did Andrew know he was losing it? Did he fight to keep his sense of self? Did he feel it eroding, or did it ebb and flow?

Man, thought Peach, I wish I knew how to talk to you. It was a bit like being with someone who spoke a different language. But sometimes he imagined he could actually sense Andrew’s panic and disorientation. And now his self-loathing when he pissed himself and stood glaring at his feet. “Hey, this is a good time to check out the shower bars,” Peach said when he noticed the wet floor. “Let me give you a hand.” He set aside his tools and held up a towel while Andrew undressed and moved to the shower bench.

Peach turned on the shower and handed the wand to Andrew. “Rinse yourself off and I’ll find you something to put on.”

Andrew simply held the shower wand against his bony chest and regarded the stream of warm water with a sense of wonder. Peach grabbed a change of clothes from the closet and set them by the tub. When the shower stopped, he handed over a towel and went to clean up the mess.

A few minutes later Andrew came out, dressed in clean clothes, looking slightly chastened. “I’m sorry to be such a burden.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m old.”

“We’ll all get there one day, buddy,” Peach said, “if we’re lucky.”

“I’ve far outlived my usefulness,” Andrew said.

“Listen, I don’t know you guys so well, but I know this. Natalie needs you. And you’re damn lucky to have her. Everything she does shows you that you mean the world to her.”

“I shall keep that in mind, young man,” Andrew said. “But if I forget, you must remind me.”

Peach nodded, then went back to work. When he finished for the day, he took his tools to the truck and loaded up. “I’ll be back in the morning,” he said to Natalie. “Eight o’clock okay?”

She nodded. “I’m an early riser.” She paused, then said, “I heard you talking with my grandfather.”

“He’s good company. Hope that’s okay.”

“Okay? It’s wonderful. Thank you. Some people …” She bit her lip, looked down. “Some people don’t have the patience. It’s hard. There are times when I have to remind myself that he’s still there.”

Peach realized by “some people,” she meant herself.