You won’t let nothing happen to her, he said.
No sir. We’ll do our best.
That’s not what I’m saying. Your best might not be good enough. This is my wife here. This lady means everything to me in the world.
I hear you. But—
No. I won’t have no objections on this. You do what I say. Now go on. He bent over close to her face and patted her cheek and kissed her.
The two men wheeled her out to the ambulance. Almost immediately he heard the siren start up again in front of the house, then the diminishing sound of it retreating up the street.
3
SHE STAYED in the Holt County Memorial Hospital at the south end of Main Street for most of three days. They could find nothing wrong with her except that she was old and she was working too hard and she had exhausted herself by taking care of her husband by herself.
By nightfall of that first day she was a little better. But at the hospital they said she still needed her bed rest. The nurse said, Don’t you have somebody that would come in and help you?
I don’t know, she said. Maybe. But I’m worried about my husband. He’s all alone.
Your husband told them he was all right there in the house.
Told who?
The men who brought you in the ambulance. They asked him and apparently he said he was all right.
Well he isn’t all right. He wouldn’t let on how he really is. Not ever to strangers.
They said he seemed like he could be a little bit hard to get along with.
No, he isn’t. He just gets set in his ways about things. He doesn’t mean anything bad by it. But he’s not well at all. He’s alone in that house without me.
Isn’t there a neighbor or somebody?
Maybe there is. She looked across the room. Would you bring me that phone?
You want to call a neighbor? It’s kind of late, Mrs. Lewis.
I want to talk to Dad. I want to speak to my husband.
But you shouldn’t be talking to anyone on any phone right now. You’re not supposed to be upsetting yourself.
Would you bring it to me, she said. I want to make a private call, please.
The nurse looked at her and then brought the telephone and set it on the bedside stand and went out. It took a long time for him to answer.
Yeah. This is Dad Lewis. His voice sounded rough and old.
Honey, are you doing okay?
Is that you?
Yes. It’s me. Are you doing okay?
You’re supposed to be asleep. I thought you’d be resting.
I wanted to see how you are.
Did they say I called this morning and another time this afternoon?
No. They didn’t tell me that.
Yeah. Well. I did.
What did they tell you about me? she said.
They said you need to rest. You need to take it easy and get your strength up.
I’m all tired out, honey, she said. When I got here and woke up I was all wet with sweat.
You were wet when they come for you. You don’t remember that.
No.
But will you be all right, do they say?
I don’t have any pep. That’s all.
Outside the room people were talking in the hallway, and the nurse had come back in to check on her.
She’s telling me I got to get off the phone now. Did you get some supper, honey?
Yeah. I had something.
What did you have?
I heated up some soup. But you need to take care of yourself, Dad said. Will you do that?
Good night, honey, she said.
They still always slept together as they had since the first night so long ago, in the old soft double bed in the downstairs bedroom, even though he was sick and dying now and moved restlessly in the bed in the night. She insisted on being there close beside him, she wouldn’t have it otherwise. Now in the night it was unfamiliar and lonely, and he was desolate without her. At three o’clock he woke and went to the bathroom and came back to bed and lay awake thinking for a long time, until the room began to get a little gray and he could make out the brass handles on the dresser drawers and the mirror on the door to the closet.
In the middle of the morning the old neighbor woman came over and knocked on the front door and then cracked it open without waiting. Hello? Dad, are you here?
Who is it?
It’s Berta May from next door.
Yeah. All right.
Can I come in?
Come ahead.
She came in with a young girl behind her and they stood in the living room looking at him. He was in sweatpants and an old flannel shirt.
Mary called, Berta May said. She said you was alone here by yourself.
Well I don’t know what she did that for.
Well she was worried about you.
Yeah, but I’m okay.
Maybe you are. Maybe you aren’t.
Dad looked at her and looked at the girl. You going to sit down? I’m not going to stand up.
No. I come over to see if I could help. To see if you needed something.
I don’t.
You’re sure of that.
I’m doing all right. Who’s this here you got with you? he said.
This is Alice, my granddaughter. Haven’t you met her before?
I see her out in the yard over there across the fence.
She’s living with me now. Say hello to Dad Lewis, honey.
The girl was eight years old, a thin brown-haired girl in blue denim shorts and a white T-shirt.
Hello, she said.
Hello back to you, Dad told her.
Berta May said, You don’t mind me looking out in the kitchen to see if anything needs to be done, do you.
It’s okay out there. It’s just not tidy.
Well, I’ll just take a look. She went out. The girl remained, looking around the room and then at Dad Lewis in his chair.
Why do they call you that? she said.
What?
Dad.
Because I got a daughter like you. People started calling me that when she was born. A long time ago.
I don’t have a dad. I don’t even know where he is. I don’t ever see him.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Are you sick or something? she said.
You could say so. I got this cancer eating me up.
She studied him for a moment. Is it in your breast? That’s where my mother had hers.
I got it all over me.
Are you going to die?
Yeah. That’s what they tell me.
She looked out the window. You can see Grandma’s house from here. You can see the backyard.
That’s where I saw you. I noticed you yesterday back there, Dad said.
What was I doing?
I don’t know. I couldn’t tell what you were doing.
Was I down on the grass?
Yes. I believe you were.
Then I was working.
What kind of work?
Digging dandelions. Grandma pays me for every one. She’s got a lot of them.
Why don’t you come over here and dig some.
How much would you pay?
The same as your grandmother.
I don’t know, she said. I better go see if she needs any help.
The neighbor woman Berta May washed up the dishes and swept the kitchen and afterward she and her granddaughter went back home and at noon she sent the girl over with a tray covered with a white dish towel. Alice came in and said, Where do you want me to put this?
What have you got?
Grandma made you some lunch. The girl set the tray on a chair and removed the dish towel. There were potato chips and a ham sandwich and a little hill of cottage cheese on a paper plate and a piece of cake wrapped in wax paper. Grandma said you could drink water or make your own coffee.
You want some of it? I’m not hungry.
Grandma’s waiting for me to eat with her.
Tell her I appreciate this. Will you do that?
The girl went out, and through the window he could see her going along the fence and on into the yellow house.