Page 12 of Things You Save in a Fire

“I’m fine. Point is, I could use some help. Not forever.”

“A year at the most,” I repeated.

“Exactly!” she said, like we were getting somewhere. “While I adjust. There’s a therapy you can do to help speed things along. Learn to use the one eye like a pro. But it takes a while.”

“A year?”

“Nine months to a year. Then we’re done.”

You had to admire the optimism.

I pushed the empathy back. I was not going to feel sorry for her. People suffered worse things all the time. We’d just picked up a guy last week who’d severed his hand cutting boards to make a playhouse for his kids.

But my mind was on alert now. This was happening. She was really asking. Ayear.That was a lifetime. I didn’t have a year to give away. “Can’t you hire a caregiver?”

She burst out with a laugh, like I had to be joking. “Sweetheart, I’m an artist!” Then, like it went without saying, “I am dead broke.”

“Can’t Ted help you?”

“Why on earth would he even consider doing that?”

She had a point there.

I tried again. “But you have health insurance, right?”

“It’s terrible. It’s worse than not having insurance at all.”

“Don’t you have friends?” I asked.

“Of course I have friends!” She sounded insulted. “But they have their own families to look after.”

“But I live in Texas!” I said, feeling my argument weaken.

“It’s just a two-day drive,” she said, like,Easy.“You can stay with me. For free! I have a spare room in the attic with white curtains with pom-pom trim and a window that overlooks the harbor.”

She waited, like pom-pom curtains might do the trick.

Then she added, “Think of all the money you could save on rent! Just for a year. Maybe less.”

I shook my head. “I have a life here. Friends.”

“A boyfriend?” she asked.

“No boyfriend.”

“Someone you’re sleeping with, then?” Then, like she was making air quotes, she added, “A sex buddy?”

“Mom!” I shrieked, forgetting I didn’t call her that anymore. “That is not the term.”

“Sorry.”

“I’m too busy for that, anyway,” I added.

“Too busy for what?”

“Too busy for dating. I don’t have time.”

There was a pause, and then she said, “I don’t understand.”

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