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By Root 916 0

that had taken place. They said that she really had been dead, and they had checked all the machines and they had been working just fine, and after all, as the doctor said, Aunt Elner did survive a fall that would have killed most people; then there was the fact that she could suddenly hear without her hearing aid. Could she possibly be telling the truth? Oh, dear. Last night she had been so sure, but as usual, now she was scared she might be wrong. Maybe Aunt Elner had not been dreaming. The longer she thought about it, Norma began to wonder if maybe this might be the sign, wonder, or miracle she had prayed for. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were true? Maybe there really was an afterlife. She got up out of bed and quietly picked out her clothes and tiptoed out of the bedroom.

She put on her makeup and got dressed and left a note on the coffeepot for Macky.

Honey, couldn’t sleep, so I have gone to the hospital to see Aunt Elner. Call you later at work.

Love, Me

Before she drove out of town, Norma decided to run by Elner’s house on the way and pick up her hairbrush and a few other things she might need while she was still in the hospital. It was still dark when she arrived, and when she opened the front door and turned on the lights, she was astonished at how neat the place looked. She would have to thank Tot and Ruby for doing such a nice job of cleaning up. While she was in the bedroom, she stopped for a second and seriously thought about taking down that photograph of those hideous little rats jumping around in the sand that Aunt Elner had cut out of a National Geographic magazine and Scotch-taped to the wall above her bed. She had been able to get rid of that robe, and now was probably her only chance to get rid of this, but she didn’t do it, and it took every ounce of strength not to. She went over and opened the dresser and got out two of the new nightgowns she had given Elner for Christmas and picked up her hearing aid as well, better safe than sorry. Aunt Elner could hear fine yesterday, but you never know.

And as far as Norma was concerned, that was the main problem with life. You never knew what was going to happen from minute to minute, and more than anything in this world, Norma hated a surprise. As she headed toward Kansas City, she realized that if someone had told her a few days ago that she would be on her way to the hospital this morning to see Aunt Elner, she would not have believed it. Why did this have to happen now?

Just when she had finally finished decorating her new town home, had gotten through menopause without murdering anybody, had dropped five pounds, and after forty-three years of marriage, her and Macky’s love life was exactly like she had always wanted it to be—on schedule, once a week, every Sunday afternoon at around four or five, depending on what else was going on. She liked that it took place on Sunday; it lifted it up out of the ordinary, into a more spiritual event, more in keeping with the marriage vow, rather than just doing it on the whim of the moment, like Macky wanted to.

Being an organized person, she liked to know exactly what was going to happen, and when. She wanted to have time to take a nice hot bath, put on some pretty music, and make a real occasion out of it. After all, Macky was still a good-looking man who had most of his sandy-colored hair, but he had never understood why she had not wanted to just drop everything and jump into bed without any advance notice or warning. He wanted to be “spontaneous,” he had said. Of course, when they were younger she had gone along with it, just to keep him happy; men can get their feelings hurt so easily. She had no idea what other people did or how often they did it. That was a subject she would never discuss with anyone, and she had been so relieved when she’d learned that by the time Linda had reached that certain age sex education was being taught in high school, and she did not have to have the birds and the bees conversation.

When she was growing up, people did not talk about their sex life the way they do now,