Are you okay?”

“Chloe isn’t sick the way they’re saying she is.”

Ellen looked back up the steps, then came closer.

“Then why did Julian tell Pastor Wills she’s in hospice?

He asked the entire congregation to pray because the end is close.”

“When was that?”

“Wednesday, I think.

There’s a card going around.” She said it the way you hand someone a bill that landed in your mailbox by mistake.