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“Is everything all right? Do you need me to come over?”
“What are you talking about?” Harrison grumbled. “It’s after midnight! You’re not going anywhere.”
“Where’s Elyse?” I asked my father.
“Your mother is in bed, asleep.”
“Dad, Mom is dead,” I reminded him as gently as I could.
“Vic,” I heard Elyse call out. “Vic? Where are you? What are you doing in the closet, for God’s sake? Who are you talking to? Hello? Who is this?” she said into the phone.
“It’s Jodi. What’s happening?”
“Go back to bed, darling,” I heard her tell my father. “That’s right, sweetheart. I’ll be right there.”
“What’s happening?” I asked again.
“It’s nothing,” Elyse said calmly. “Your father sometimes gets confused when he takes a sleeping pill, that’s all.”
“Since when does he take sleeping pills?”
“Since he sometimes has trouble sleeping.”
“He’s always been against taking unnecessary drugs,” I argued.
“Sometimes these things are necessary,” she said.
“For whom?” I asked.
“Elyse!” I heard my father call out.
“Coming, darling. Everything’s fine, Jodi. I’m sorry he disturbed you. Now get some sleep. Everything’s fine,” she repeated before hanging up.
Everything’s fine,I repeated silently, lying back down.Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine.
—
Elyse called first thing the following morning.
“I just wanted to apologize for last night,” she said. “I’m sure that your father didn’t mean to alarm you.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“He’s still sleeping. Obviously, he had a rather rough night.”
“We all did.”
“These things happen when you get older,” she said, an almost audible smile in her voice. “Speaking of which, it’s your father’s eightieth birthday next Saturday, and I was hoping you could all come for dinner.”
“Sounds lovely,” I said, the exact opposite of what I was thinking. Still, such invitations were rare these days, and it would give me an opportunity to see my father, observe his behavior firsthand, maybe even give me a chance to talk to him alone.
“Lovely,” she said, using my word. “I’ll call Tracy. Six o’clock?”
“Sounds good.”
“We’ll look forward to seeing you then.”
