“That I asked if he had packed his medication and the charger.”

“Then you were taking care of him.”

I wanted the conversation to have been profound because I had not known it would be the last.

Instead, there had been practical questions and a suitcase and a joke about three weeks.

My friend did not tell me those things were better.

She let me wish for something different without pretending I could retrieve it.

After she left, I found an old grocery list in Patrick’s handwriting.