Sometimes he came for coffee.

Sometimes weeks passed before his schedule and theirs lined up.

Clara learned that a missed visit did not mean help had vanished, because there were other people to contact and plans that did not depend on one person.

Chloe began telling him about school instead of asking whether her mother had woken.

She showed him a book she was reading, then corrected him when he pronounced the name of a character differently from the way she preferred.

“I stand corrected,” he said.