This time I accepted the answer.
“That’s not mine to tell.”
“Why the week off?”
“He nearly backed out. I had vacation days. I told him I’d go with him the first week.”
“You’re teaching him?”
“No. The people there know what they’re doing. I drive him when he wants a ride, help with the computer exercises, and practice with him.”
“You’re teaching him?”
I thought about the cards I’d watched them use.
“Why pretend you’re working?”
“Because I was an idiot.”
“Better answer.”
“I thought if I changed my routine, you’d ask questions.”
“Why pretend you’re working?”
“So you created fake meetings.”
“Yes.”
“Traffic?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“That one was especially ridiculous.”
“It was.”
“So you created fake meetings.”
Frank called that evening.
Eliam looked at me, then answered.
“Hey.”
He listened.
“No, she’s here.”
Another pause.
Then he held the phone toward me.
“He wants to talk to you. I told him everything.”
Frank called that evening.
I took it.
“Hello?”
Frank’s voice came through rough and familiar.
“I hear I caused trouble.”
“You had help.”
“I told him not to tell you.”
“I’m aware.”
“So be mad at me.”
“I hear I caused trouble.”
I looked at Eliam.
“I can multitask.”
Frank laughed.
Then he became quiet.
“There’s something I didn’t let Eliam tell you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.”
I waited.
“There’s something I didn’t let Eliam tell you.”
Frank added, “My grandson gave me a birthday card three months ago.”
I looked toward Eliam.
Frank continued.
“I told him I’d forgotten my glasses. I took that card home, Sandy.” He paused. “And I put it in a drawer because I couldn’t read what that little boy had written to me.”
“My grandson gave me a birthday card three months ago.”
Frank told me Marian had always helped.
Forms. Instructions. Birthday cards.
After she died, he developed workarounds.
Then his grandson handed him that dinosaur card.
Every Housekeeper I Hired Quit Within Weeks, Usually After My Husband Worked from Home – When I Hired Another, I Hid a Camera, and What I Saw Made My Blood Run Cold
My Husband Went to Visit His Sick Uncle Every Saturday – Months Later, I Called His Uncle Myself, and He Said, ‘I Haven’t Seen Him in over Six Months’
A Woman Took the Seat I’d Been Waiting For After Seeing My Hospital Badge, Saying, ‘Doctors Make Enough Money to Stand’ – What the Man Beside Her Did Next Made Her Instantly Regret It
“I got tired of needing somebody between me and the words,” he said.
After she died, he developed workarounds.
The next morning, Frank invited me to the learning center.
He was already sitting at a table when I arrived, dinosaur lunchbox beside him.
“Don’t laugh.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I said.
“You were thinking about it.”
“Absolutely.”
“You were thinking about it.”
Eliam sat nearby.
Frank pulled a card from his folder.
The dinosaur on the front wore a party hat.
I reached automatically.
Frank covered it with his hand.
“Don’t.”
Frank pulled a card from his folder.
I stopped.
“That’s sort of the point.”
He opened it.
His grandson’s handwriting covered half the inside.
Frank began reading.
Slowly.
Sometimes he stopped.
Frank began reading.
Once, I knew the word immediately and nearly supplied it.
Eliam glanced at me.
Neither of us spoke.
Frank tried again.
Then he found it himself.
“‘You’re my best buddy.'”
He sat back.
“‘You’re my best buddy.'”
For several seconds, nobody said anything.
Then Frank wiped his cheek with one finger.
“Kid still draws terrible dinosaurs.”
I laughed.
Later, while Eliam packed his laptop, Frank nodded toward him.
“Everybody wants to give me the word.”
“Kid still draws terrible dinosaurs.”
I looked at my husband.
Frank added, “Your husband was the first person stubborn enough to wait for me to find it.”
On the drive home, Eliam apologized.
“I should’ve told you I was on leave and that somebody needed me. I could’ve stopped there.”
“Yes.”
Eliam apologized.
“I was afraid you’d ask questions.”
“I probably would’ve.”
He waited.
“I don’t need every secret somebody trusts you with,” I said. “But I need to know when my life is being rearranged around one.”
“You’re right.”
“I was afraid you’d ask questions.”
“And I shouldn’t have followed you,” I admitted.
Eliam looked over.
“I understand why.”
“I know. I still shouldn’t have.”
The next morning, he picked up his laptop and keys.
Same routine.
“I shouldn’t have followed you.”
This time he stopped at the door.
“I’m going to the learning center.”
“Frank?”
“Yeah.”
“Anything you can’t tell me?”
“Most of it.”
“Good.”
“I’m going to the learning center.”
I pointed toward the counter.
“These actually do need to go with you.”
His medication.
Eliam laughed and pocketed it.
A few days later, he sent me a photograph.
“These actually do need to go with you.”
Frank sat at a table with his dinosaur lunchbox beside him. His grandson was there too, writing something on a scrap of paper.
Frank leaned toward the words.
Eliam sat several feet away.
Waiting.
Frank leaned toward the words.
