I laughed. “I’m glad Shane talked some sense into her about it. That would have been really sad, if you’d had to wear the stripes.”

Charlie was going to reply when we heard a soft knock on my bedroom door. Two seconds later it opened and Shane walked in with a tray.

“Dinnertime. I know it’s a little late, but Jenny got caught up at work and didn’t have a chance to bring it over until now.”

“It’s okay, I’m not really very hungry anyway,” I replied. Shane frowned at that but didn’t say anything. “Why did she get caught up at work?”

“Nothing huge, she said one of the espresso machines broke this afternoon so she had to find somebody to come fix it. She was just in the office most of the time, but she’s kinda tired so she went to rest for a little bit. She says hi, though,” she said, directing that at Charlie. “Oh, and I heard my name, so stop gossiping. I know you both love Alice, but I kinda like the prospect of no more of that stuff.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Not gonna happen. I’ve been living with her for four decades, I couldn’t stop now if I tried. And we weren’t even really gossiping, we were talking about how you saved Charlie from wearing that weird thing at his wedding.”

“Oh, the zebra suit? Yeah, that was really bad. Even for Alice,” Shane agreed.

Charlie nodded and stood up. “I should really be getting home. Take it easy, Ma. I’ll probably see you at the hospital tomorrow.”

I was going to ask him about things at home, but I thought better of it when I noticed how tired he looked. It also prevented me from asking about his job. He wasn’t a main anchor and his spots were only a few days a week anyway, so I knew it wasn’t hurting him to take time off, but it worried me that he felt he needed to. I knew that Kallie felt the same way, but her job was a lot less forgiving about those sorts of things, especially at this time of year. Still, I knew it was weighing on both of them, and I felt horrible about it.

“Hey Shane?” I asked as she was about to leave the room after taking my temperature and shaking her head a little.

“I’ll be right back, I’m just getting you some more Tylenol to try and bring that down,” she said.

“No, it’s okay. I just wondered if you could tell me if Kallie calls tonight? I’d like to talk to her,” I said a little sadly. It wasn’t like we talked all that often anyway, but I hadn’t heard much from her the past few days. It was understandable, but at the same time, I wanted to talk to my daughter.

“Oh, she actually called this afternoon while you were asleep. She wanted to say hi, and I thought about waking you but I just didn’t have the heart. You were out like a light.”

“Stupid fever,” I muttered.

“Yeah. She said she has a date tonight, so I really doubt she’ll be calling, but she’ll be at the hospital to see Al tomorrow. We can always call her in the morning and see when she’s heading over so we can get there around the same time,” Shane said, turning back around to go to the kitchen. I let her, and she came back a few minutes later.

I took the pills and managed to eat most of my soup. Shane seemed satisfied, but she told me to sleep. I kinda wanted to go out and watch TV or something, but I really wasn’t feeling too great, so I just nodded.

I think they probably went to bed early that night too. Either that, or I was sleeping too hard to hear them if they made a sound. I was trying to focus all my energy on being able to go see Alice again the next day. It had been far too long.