“We have to redo his pre-op vitals in ten minutes, Nora,” Ruth said, her voice softening into a gentle, motherly firmness.

“His blood pressure’s gone up four points since five o’clock.”

“Did you text Grandma when we left the house?” Caleb asked, his eyes tracking Ruth’s pen across the yellow sheet on her clipboard.

“I texted her at four when we put your bag in the back,” I told him.

“And I sent another one when we paid the fourteen-dollar parking fee at the garage booth.”

Caleb nodded twice, content with the details, but his thumb kept rubbing the smooth corner of the triceratops blanket back and forth.

He laid his head back on the stiff white hospital pillow.

“Grandma said she’d bring a strawberry cake to the room afterward,” he whispered.

“She did say that,” I replied, leaning back in the metal-framed chair beside the headboard.

“And Aunt Vanessa said she’d bring her sparkly ring to show me.”

“She still might bring it,” I said, even though my fingernail snagged on the bevel of my watch again as I dragged it over the glass.

Nurse Ruth peeled off her blue rubber gloves and flicked them into the wall disposal bin with a plastic rattle that made Caleb flinch.

“I need to run these blood samples down to the lab station on three, Nora,” Ruth said, peering at me over her reading glasses.

“Why don’t you walk him down by the lobby doors for a little fresh air before we change his gown?”