Chapter 24: The Number Hasn't Changed

My mother's kitchen smelled of roast chicken and burnt sugar, and every chair in it was full except one.

Edith sat at the head of the table with a walker parked behind her.

She had been home for two days, and she had already rearranged my cupboards, which were hers.

Gwen was across from me, picking the crust off a pie she had not been invited to eat yet.

"The decree came Saturday," my attorney had said on the phone that morning. "You are officially nobody's wife. Congratulations."

I had stood in the hall with the phone in my hand and laughed until I had to sit on the stairs.

"Six o'clock," Edith said now, and tapped the clock on the wall. "I said six, and it's six."

"He'll be here."

"He is a lawyer. He says the time, and then he arrives at the time."

"He said he had to pick something up."

"He said no such thing. He said it was a surprise, which is worse."

Gwen snorted.

"The finance chief called me about the sale," she said. "The beach house closed on Friday, in cash."

"And the patient fund?"

"They're putting a brass plaque on it."

"What does it say?"

"I suggested 'For people whose husbands won't sign.'"

"You did not."

"I did, and she wrote it down."

My mother laughed, a crooked bright laugh that I had not heard in two years.

"And Russell?" Edith said. "Has anyone seen him?"

"He's living in his cousin's guest room," Gwen said. "He's selling his golf clubs on the internet."

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