“They said not yet,” one of the event ladies said. “Did you want us to stay? We could, if you need somebody here.”

I recognized that they were asking permission to leave. I told them I thought we were covered, and thanks, and yes, someone would let them know how Viridian was.

Oscar watched them leave. “There goes lunch.”

My mother came over then with a tray. She put it in front of Oscar and off-loaded a plate and two glasses of iced tea, one for him and one for me. “What’s this?” Oscar asked, poking a fork at the plate in front of him.

“Mac and cheese with broccoli.”

“They were serving salmon rillettes in Sonoma.”

“You’ll eat it and like it.”

“I see where you get your attitude,” Oscar said to me. He took a bite. “This is actually not bad.”

My mother said, “I have to get back to work. Is he going to be okay? I don’t like his color, he looks flushed.”

“It might be the shirt.”

Oscar looked up from his mac and cheese. “What about my shirt?”

“It’s purple,” I said.

“Heliotrope,” he corrected. My mother sighed.

“Second floor east,” she said. “Ask for Dr. Gandhi. Call me if you need me. Let me know if you’ll want dinner, I was only going to have leftovers, but I can pick something up. Don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right.”

We watched her walk away, her heels clipping on the tile floor. “What’s your mother’s name?” Oscar asked.

“Dawn. Why?”

“Dawn,” he repeated. “Come on, let’s go find Viridian.”

It was another weirdness to be at my mom’s hospital, where I’d been any number of times before, and to have Viridian here, as if someone had changed the channel on the cosmic television without me knowing. Viridian was sitting up in bed, in a blue flowered hospital gown and one of those plastic wrist bracelets. Her hair was mussed, as I’d never seen it, disordered and frizzy. I wanted badly to set it straight. Her voice was calm but weak. “All this fuss. I’m mortified.”

“How are you, what happened?”

“It was the silliest thing. I drank a glass of wine, which I should not have done, and it went right to my head. And it really was hot in that room, wasn’t it, Oscar?”

“Criminally. I called Barb, she’s on her way over.”

“Now why did you do that?”

“Because I knew she’d want to be here.”

Viridian turned her head fretfully on her pillow. “I suppose this is what I get for being old.”

“What is the doctor telling you?” I asked. “Is it your blood pressure?”

“They want to keep me overnight. Like that ever made anyone feel better.”

“It’s a very highly rated hospital,” I said, but she had fallen asleep.

“Oh my God,” Oscar said. “Get a nurse or somebody.”