One of the advantages of Ziggy being in stealth mode a lot then, was that his hair didn’t have a lot of stuff in it. Which meant I could run my fingers through it. Right then it was silkier than a conditioner commercial. So was mine. He buried his nose in it and breathed. “You […]
(Happy Christmas Eve, folks!) — Ziggy and I had a surprisingly nice dinner for being cooked in the mini-kitchen of the extended stay place. Ha! That tells you how my standards had changed. This “mini” kitchen was easily twice the size of the one in the Fenway studio I used to live in. Somewhere along […]
Courtney came in that morning to find me asleep on the side bed, still in my clothes, a pillow over my head. She was saying something to me as I woke, but I couldn’t really parse it. There were a bunch of other people in the room: doctors and nurses. I had a surge of […]
I spent that night at the hospital. Ziggy went back to the hotel after midnight but I stayed through till morning, as I often did. There was a bed I could sleep in but I didn’t sleep so much as nap at points when she appeared to be out cold. Sometimes she didn’t sleep, though, […]
I ended up going back to the hospital, getting Ziggy, and then bringing him back to the hotel so I could tell him the whole story in four-part harmony, without interruptions or worrying who might overhear. He listened, sitting on the very rectangular couch, with one knee crossed over the other, a cup of lukewarm […]
You probably want to know how I ended up trapped in a car with two sisters who were not getting along. Yeah, I want to know, too. I’m pretty sure it happened because I offered to drive them back to the hotel-type place, but I really should have been cannier and told Lilibeth that our […]
Remo and I had another talk with the hospice counselor. This one was a woman. We were sitting in the hospital cafeteria for this one. None of my sisters were present at the time, because the two older ones were having a fight somewhere and the younger one was with our mother.
A smile was not the reaction I had when I saw Lilibeth standing there, but it was Ziggy’s. I’m not sure he smiled because he was putting on a front for her or if he was truly delighted that now he wouldn’t be bored. Or both. I know. Or both. “Lilibeth Marks, I do declare,” […]
(Happy Thanksgiving if you’re in the US! If you’ve spent time with your biological family and now you’re ready to spend time with your chosen family instead, welcome to Daron’s. -ctan) — Bart called. I woke up with the phone ringing, and I picked it up and it was Bart. I lay on the bed, […]
Claire came out of surgery some time that evening. The words I remember the doctor using were that she was “out of immediate danger” and wondering how that was different from him saying “we’ve staved off the inevitable.” Maybe it wasn’t. I didn’t ask. Maybe Remo did. I wasn’t absorbing a lot.