Six days have gone by, and the doctor still has not called. Janet and Claude push Louise’s feet into tennis shoes. It is time for her to get out of the apartment. They will take a field trip to the grocery store.
Outside in the brightness, the three of them stare down the three flights of stairs that lead to the parking lot. Louise says no way. Claude stands behind Louise and lifts her by her armpits, and Janet stands in front of her, holding her hands and coaching her down each step. It takes a while. Claude sees a woman open her door, look at their progress, and shut it again. A man waits for them to get all the way down before he runs up the stairs two at a time.
Louise sits in the car while Janet and Claude go in. All Louise wants to eat is potato chips and lemon-lime soda, so that is what they buy.
•
The next day, Louise can walk around the apartment a little. She slides her left arm, the good arm, along the wall. Janet is so proud she has to fight off tears. The right side of Louise’s body is drooping a bit. When Louise slips and thuds against the wall, Janet pretends not to see.
One of Janet’s friends suggests they take up knitting. Knitting is very soothing, she says, and will distract them while they wait for the doctor to call. Janet drives to a crafts store. She buys needles and wool and a book that will teach them how to make a scarf. Louise is agreeable. Janet reads the steps slowly, and Louise moves the needles this way and that. It is difficult with her right hand. The yarn becomes a tangled mess. Louise drops the needles and hides her face in her lap, squeezing her scalp. Janet puts on a movie. They watch it on mute. Any electronic sound is fuzz, her daughter says.
•
Claude joins an online baseball team. He stays at his office until late into the night to play. He bets money. He accidentally wakes Janet up when he comes back to the apartment. Janet looks at him harshly but says nothing. He brushes his teeth and feels guilty about what Janet must assume. If she asked him point blank, he might admit that cheating had crossed his mind, but no, of course he never would.
Claude and Louise still share a bed, a queen-sized. Louise had chosen a headboard but they had not gotten around to buying it yet. When they first moved in together they’d spent a lot of time at the wholesale store. Their membership card was platinum. They’d stared at the hampers of frozen chicken wings, the aluminum trays of Caesar salad, the barrels of mayonnaise. Who would need all that? they’d said to each other. What kind of people needed so much?
When Claude gets under the covers he feels angry at Louise for being just a body to sleep next to, nothing else, then feels bad for his anger. He tells Louise he loves her, but she must be asleep, because there is no reply.
•
Claude, Janet, and Louise go to Butterfly Beach. They sit on the steps of the stairway that leads to the sand. A floppy orange hat hides Louise’s eye patch a little. Claude notices there are many dogs around that their owners can’t control. The dogs bite each other’s throats and the people tug hard on their leashes. He puts his arm around Louise, as if she might run out there.
Later they drive down the village’s main street. They park the car to people watch. A woman raps on Louise’s window. It’s Danica, a waitress from the Spanish restaurant where Louise used to work nights. Claude’s boss lunches there often. He enjoys the fresh flowers and tasteful cleavage.
Claude reaches across Louise and cranks open the window. “We all have a card for you,” Danica says. Louise says thank you. “I could swing by and get it sometime,” Claude says.
“Or me,” says Janet.
The good will between Janet and Claude is going away. Once, when Claude was sitting in his car late at night, Janet knocked on his window, startling him so much he gave a shout. What are you doing? she’d mouthed.
Claude remembers how, when he and Louise first started dating in college, they used to take a break from their copy-editing shift to hit golf balls in the parking lot. Louise would wind up for a big swing and often miss the ball completely. Claude always hit his, precise and quick, and the balls would silently float away. They usually had cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. They never tried to find the balls they hit into the darkness. They never gave those balls a second thought.
Where are you, Louise? he thinks. Are you coming back?
•
Janet thinks Claude’s cologne is effeminate. His condiments in the refrigerator are frivolous, his hair products inside the medicine cabinet an embarrassment.
At the end of the week, they get the call from the hospital. The neurosurgeon says he’s sorry, but he will not perform the surgery. It is too risky, too much could go wrong. Janet protests. “Then where do we go?” she asks. “I don’t know,” he says.