Chapter 10: The Ordinary Months
The months that followed did not announce themselves with drama. They arrived as rent paid on time, a refrigerator that stayed stocked without coins counted on a kitchen table, and mornings that began in a room I did not have to justify occupying.
The caregiver continued three days a week. On the other days I managed with the cane and the layout that required no stairs. Patrick’s longer construction contract held; the wedding rings stayed on their hands. Samuel’s fever did not return. Samantha began setting aside a small amount each week again, the way people do when the immediate edge has been removed. I visited their apartment on Sundays when invited and left before the evening meal so that the four of them could return to the rhythm of a household that no longer stretched itself around a fifth person in crisis.
I kept no calendar of the days since Christopher’s lock clicked or Victoria’s gate closed. The absence of contact from either of them was simply a fact that required no further interpretation. The letter had not been written to reopen those doors. It had been written so that I would never again need them to open.
