Forgetting
"Jack?"
"Yes'm?"
"Oh… good. I wasn't sure you were here. I cain't hardly see no more."
"I'm always here, now, ma, no need to worry. Moved in, 'member?—came last week."
"Oh, that's right. You always were such a good, boy, Jack. There were so many times I should have told you that, should have, well… You know. Not that I didn't love your father. But he was never the same after the war… he was so much like you when he was younger… I used t'love to watch him rodeo. I ever tell you about that? He rode somethin' fine."
"I 'magine that he did. Did the nurse already give the pill today? I cain't find her note."
"The nurse? You mean the lovely young lady trying to sell me cosmetics? I have to get her to stop coming 'round, no time for that, got so much to do 'round the house. You'll help me, right? Gotta get the house ready for your father, you know how he likes a clean house."
"Sure 'nough, 's all taken care of already."
"Oh, thank goodness. You always were such a good boy. Are you leavin'? You'll want some coffee?"
Ennis sighed, patiently answering Evelyn's next round of questions, variations on the same theme. When he left her room twenty minutes later, he sent a prayer up to heaven that Jack would be waiting for her, that he'd finally hear all the things she never told him in life, revealed in dying.