“Somebody was supposed to make it,” I said.

She picked up the phone at her elbow.

“One other thing.

A woman named Elena called the ward twice yesterday, asking what time visiting starts.

A neighbor, she said.

I wrote her name on a sticky note, and it’s still up on the board.”

I got as far as the elevators before I had to shift the duffel strap to my other shoulder.

Charles stood at the window ledge of room 412 with a paper cup he never drank from, thumbing the band on his wrist until it lit.