Chapter 16: Fifty Yeses

We came back from Portland at dusk, and the dining room was already full.

The auxiliary women sat along both sides of the table with cups of cocoa, and my mother stood at the head with a stack of white cards.

Winifred was in the corner chair, and Cora sat at the far end with her cold tea.

Tiernan waited by the sideboard with his tablet.

The Portland cardiologist had read my chart, listened for twenty minutes, and told my father the same thing as the clinic doctor in kinder words.

He had also said he had never seen a heart that stopped and started like mine, and that he wanted me back in a week.

My father squeezed my shoulder in the doorway, and I felt Deborah watching his hand.

"Sit, sweetheart," she said. "We've been waiting."

I sat.

"Let's begin. Cocoa."

"I don't..."

"Granted!" said my mother, and a woman in a green scarf set a cup in front of me. "For my girls. Next?"

"I'd like to..."

"A blanket," she said. "Granted. For my girls."

Someone put a quilt around my shoulders.

The cards came faster after that.

A pillow, a sweater, a new pair of socks, a song on the piano, a window opened, a window closed, a taxi, a candle, a seat by the fire.

Before I could finish a sentence, my mother said "Granted," and every time she said it she touched Cora's shoulder.

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