It would be days before I understood that I had been holding the whole secret of that house in my two hands, and had set it down again without knowing, because she was not ready yet to let it go.

Chapter 11 — For You, Mabel

That night, her breathing was worse than I had ever heard it.

I knew, the way you come to know these things after enough years at a bedside, that something had shifted.

I moved through the evening’s small tasks with a stone in my chest.

I wiped her forehead with a cool cloth.

I moistened her dry, cracked lips.

I pulled the chair close and sat where she could see me, and I stayed.