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“What changed?”
“I told you. I realized I’m just too old. And…do you promise you won’t speak another word about this if I confide something?”
“Of course.”
“I went to the doctor after experiencing some heart palpitations, and she told me that I’m in the early stages of heart failure.”
“Oh, Bob. I’m so sorry.”
He holds his hand up close to my face. “Please, I don’t want sympathy. I’m just telling you what’s going on.”
“Well, shouldn’t you be in some kind of facility? Like an assisted living or something?”
“Oh, no. I don’t need a bunch of nurses poking and prodding at me all day.”
“But they could help delay the failure.”
“I don’t want that. What I want is to die peacefully here.”
“Okay, but why not tell Mae about all of this?”
“Because she will do anything in her power—and that she already doesn’t have the money for—to get me help. I fought in several wars and made it home to tell the tale to my family. I didn’t do that just to end up dying attached to a bunch of tubes and drooling on myself.”
“I didn’t know that. Thank you for your service. What branch?”
“United States Army.”
“My father was in the Army.”
“Was he? Did you ever consider enlisting?” Bob asks.
“Oh, no. That was never my path.”
“Why not?”
“It just never seemed like the thing for me to do.”
“Well, then it wasn’t. I went through basic training with several men who were pushed into it by some kind of familial obligation, and if they even made it through, it was a struggle.”
“But it wasn’t for you?” I ask with genuine interest.
“No, it was. But I wanted the struggle and the discipline.”
“That’s so interesting. My father always said something similar.”
Chapter twenty-two
Mae – The Worst Possible Visitor
When I come out of the barn, I see that there is actually a break in the rain, and Coral is outside and trying to start her car.
“Need a jump?” I ask.
“That would be great. Thank you. I don’t know what happened.”
“I had a car back in the day that always died when it rained.”
“Really?”
