Gary sounded concerned but not panicked. I remind myself that, in some ways, he knows her better than me. I may remember the Mary of my early childhood, but Gary knows this version of her, the version she has been for the last several years, far better than I do. If he’s seen her cycle through this and come out the other side, then maybe it won’t be that bad. As far as I know, she’s on meds. How low can her low get?

I am just hitting the send button to text Angela’s contact info to my own phone when a shadow falls across the screen. I look up into the mismatched eyes of Butcher, his phone’s flashlight beaming past me into the gently moving water of the fountain. He smiles over me, and I am reminded again of that sense of familiarity I had during our last talk. Where have I encountered this man before? He takes a seat next to me on the fountain, and I lower my legs, turning the phone over in my lap. I promise myself I will call Dr. Murray if Mom is not improving by the end of next week.

“Cigarette?” he asks, shaking one from his pack and extending it toward me.

“No, thank you. I don’t like the smell,” I say. Butcher feels easy to talk to, and I don’t want to go back inside yet. Our tiny apartment is stifling now that Mary’s gloom is filling up all the corners.

“He’s good people, Gary is.” Butcher lights up next to me, taking a long drag of his cigarette.

“Yeah, he is.” I didn’t want to like Gary at first, but he’s grown on me.

“It’s a shame about his boy,” Butcher adds in a soft voice, blowing out a long stream of smoke into the damp night air.

I know Gary lost a son but not much else. “He told me.”

“It was an accident,” Butcher says now. “He was drunk and left the top off the hot tub.”

I want to ask how Butcher knows that, but I don’t. It’s no wonder Gary drinks every day. I feel fresh heartbreak for the man who has kept my mother safe for the last few years, kept her fed and sheltered. I register with a cold wave of shock that they have this in common, the loss of children they can never replace. I wonder if Gary knows my mother’s secret about the baby since he didn’t really answer me. I wonder if that’s what drew him to her.

“Do you think people get what they deserve, Cat?” Butcher asks me.