And she’d been mostly right. Kallie got stressed out really frequently, but she did seem to love her job, so in my mind it evened out. Charlie was another story; he’d never really gotten too stressed about swimming, unless he had an important meet or something. And he adored SportsCenter; it was his dream job to be an anchor, and while he hadn’t done that in order to keep his family here, he’d done all right as an LA based bureau reporter. Even with the crazy and frequent shooting schedules he still loved every minute. Since the show was broadcast out of Connecticut, his (usually quite short) segments were taped in LA and then sent to the studio there. That made his time tight a lot of the time, but he never let it interfere too badly with his life.

I realized I’d been silent since Kallie had gone home, and Charlie was looking at me in concern. I smiled to show him I was okay, and he sighed and told me he was going to head home to be with his wife and kids. “Angie’s gonna come by tomorrow,” he said as he left. “She’d have been here before, but she’s got that thing with hospitals now…”

“It’s okay. She doesn’t have to force herself, I understand. And your mom does too, okay? Tell her it’s fine, and that she doesn’t have to come by if she doesn’t want to,” I said, sad that Angie was trying to steel herself up to come visit. After watching her mom die, the poor thing was really averse to hospitals, which we all understood. I didn’t want her guilting herself into visiting us.

Charlie smiled, but he and I both knew that once an idea made its way into Angelica’s head, there was no dissuading her. I shrugged and hugged him again, and he left after assuring me he’d be by tomorrow with some more clothes and supplies for me. I didn’t mind either way, though.

Jenny and Shane sat with me for a little bit after Charlie left, but since Shane was still a little bit uneasy in hospitals I told them to go home before too much time had gone by. In all honesty, it was as much for me as it was for them. I wanted to go be with Alice. There was a chair in her room and I wanted to go sit with her, just to be near her for awhile. I think Jenny sensed that, like she’s sensed so many things over the course of the years.