There was really nothing left for us to do, but we had nowhere to go and no pressing appointments, so we just sat in Al’s room. Jenny was a little anxious about their son coming into town, although she shouldn’t have been. Ryan was the most easygoing guy on earth, and he honestly didn’t care if he was on the sofa or in the shed for the entire trip. He’d lived out in the thing until he was 21 anyway, and he always said it felt like home.

I was worried about Alice, honestly. She was doing so much better than she’d been, but I still didn’t feel too comfortable with her starting physical therapy too soon. She was still weak, and I’d seen her in some very fragile states since her stroke, so I wasn’t sure she should have been expected to be as active as they were making it seem quite yet. Still, I knew she’d been making a lot of progress and was very bored lying in the bed all day. I supposed that if the doctor said it was all right for her to be trying to move, it must be. I was still a little worried, though.

As I sat there waiting for the doctor and listening to Shane and Jenny talking quietly, my mind started to drift back to the days after we’d adopted Kallie, and how perfect they had been. I realized that time often had a way of softening one’s memories so they all seemed completely perfect in retrospect, but I honestly couldn’t remember many bad things about that time in our lives. I wondered if Alice felt the same as I sat there with my head against the back of the cushy chair.

**********

Charlie was a great baby. I often wondered just how Al and I had gotten so lucky with kids who were so well behaved. He was sleeping through the night very quickly and was always pretty happy and seemed content, which made Alice’s job a lot easier. I was starting to work with Helena a few days a week at the after-school daycare and youth center she’d managed to rent from the City with the blessing of the Center. She had some part-time staff, but aside from that she was pretty much on her own. It was perfectly fine with her, though. She seemed to love decorating the place and getting things set up for the kids in the area who were alone after school.