I woke up feeling okay. Not stellar, but not bad. I forced myself out of bed at about eight and took some of my antibiotics. I didn’t have many doses left, and I was feeling better, so I took that as a good sign. I passed by the gym on my way to the kitchen and decided that I’d been skipping my morning workouts too much lately. I changed into sweats and one of Al’s old shirts and spent about twenty minutes on the treadmill and another ten with my weights, satisfied even though the workout was shorter than usual.

I was extremely lazy after that and took what I considered to be a long shower, although most people would have told me that fifteen minutes was still fairly short. I despised staying in the water any longer than I needed to, though, and generally I was out of there in five minutes or so if Alice wasn’t in there with me.

After that, I took my time getting dressed. I’m not quite sure why, but I wanted to look nice for Alice that day. Call it a premonition if you want to, but something was nagging at me to look nice for her that day. I didn’t go formal, but I did put on a pair of nice slacks and a green top that Alice said looked really good on me. Then I made my way to the kitchen and had some oatmeal and a banana while I read the newspaper, not really retaining much of anything.

I considered calling Shane, because she’d mentioned coming to pick me up and take me to the hospital. I had the phone in my hand when I reconsidered. I hadn’t driven since Alice’s stroke, since everyone had been carting me around as if I were fragile. I suppose I was, emotionally, and I’d been pretty sick. But I felt fine now and saw no reason that I couldn’t drive myself to the hospital to see my wife. I took my phone and keys and locked up behind me before going to the garage.

The drive to the hospital was uneventful. The phone didn’t even ring, although I suppose that wasn’t too surprising considering the kids were both at work and the great majority of my friends had no reason to be up at nine thirty on a Friday morning. I parked as close to the building as I could and said hello to the nurses as I passed the desk. It took me a few seconds to remember that Al was in her own room now and not the glass-walled observation room I’d slept beside for days on end. I hung a right and walked up the stairs to the second floor, negating the elevator in favor of some more exercise.